PLANTS FROM SOUTHEASTERN UTAH. 275 



Bluff City, at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, is a little 

 Mormon settlement, with a post-office and two stores and 

 not even one saloon. The effects of both stores could be 

 loaded into one wagon. The people live well, raising fruits 

 and vegetables, depending for meat upon the sheep of 

 the Navajos and the cattle of the white men. It was this 

 town that was the center of a gold mining excitement about 

 three years ago, when wonderful stories were told of the 

 treasures of the Rio San Juan. 



On the road leaving the town we met the last human 

 beings, some half -starved Navajos, just coming in. The 

 sandy soil was covered with Heliotrofium full of its 

 beautiful white blossoms, filling the air with fragrance. 



It was dusk when we reached Butler Spring, where 

 another problem in the geographical distribution of 

 plants presented itself. This spring is at the bottom 

 of a sandstone mesa or wash, and at the head of a 

 canon down which a stream pours into the San Juan 

 when the rainy season is on. It is a constant spring of 

 pure water, forming a pool below the marshy bank from 

 which the water issues. Here were found Rhamnus Pur- 

 shiana, Amfieloftsis quinquefolia and Adiantum capillus- 

 veneris. The Rhamnus has large alder -like leaves, sim- 

 ilar to the form along the more northern States of the 

 Pacific Coast. The Adiantum was not found elsewhere, 

 but the Amfielopsis was collected also in the gorge of the 

 San Juan River. These plants did not show characters 

 noticeably different from those of the same species found 

 elsewhere and were probably brought there by birds. 

 The berries of the Ampelopsis and Rhamnus being at- 

 tractive to birds, would be easily carried in their digestive 

 organs and the indigestible stones left behind where the 

 birds came for water. The spores of the Adiantum could 

 readily be carried in the mud adhering to the plumage 



