18 ~~ Mublenbergia, Volume 3 
again in a northerly direction until it reaches the Truckee Val- 
ley at the small lumbering town of Verdi. From there to Reno 
its banks are bordered with the delightful green of the alfalfa 
fields. Leaving Reno it passes aleng through the railroad town 
of Sparks, and through immense native hay meadows to the 
first range of mountains characteristic of Nevada, the Virginia 
mountains, at whose summit the famous Virginia City with its 
Comstock mine is snugly nestled. It breaks through these 
mountains at the Truckee Pass, so frequently spoken of by Wat- 
son in the Botany of the Fortieth Parallel. After leaving the 
mountains it enters a broad, hot sandy plain, where it turns 
northward and flows between high banks to Pyramid lake. It 
is on these sandy plains near the Big Bend of the Truckee that 
many of the new species described in the Botany of the Fortieth 
Parallel were collected. At a distance of about sixteen miles 
from the Big Bend the stream divides, ene large branch empty- 
ing into Pyramid lake, and a smaller one flowing eastward into 
Winnemucca lake. The combined area of these two lakes is 
about five hundred square miles, with an elevation of 3880 feet 
above the level of the sea. The water entering these lakes can 
escape only by evaporation. It is somewhat alkaline, but nev- 
ertheless abounds in very large native trout. 
Now that we have given a general idea of the position of 
Reno to the surrounding country, let us return to the Truckee 
Valley and mention some of its botanical features. The valley, 
with its arm stretching out toward the west, is surrounded by 
mountains. The eastern Sierra Nevada mountains extend along 
the western side of the valley, and rise by a graduated series of 
sagebrush foothills to an elevation of about 7000 feet, terminat- 
ing at the extreme southwest in Mount Rose, with an elevation 
of 10800 feet, and looking down on the magnificent blue waters 
of Lake Tahoe. The Virginia mountains extend along the 
eastern side of the valley at an elevation of about 6000 feet, the 
highest peak, Mount Davidson, 7870 feet, looking down on Vir- 
ginia City on its eastern flank. 
