DESERTS AND DESERT FLORA OF THE WEST 

 grove is six miles from the station, the second 

 two miles farther south, and the third thirteen 

 miles to the southwest. This third grove is 

 the largest and finest. It is locally known as Crystal 

 or Rainbow Forest. Huge clear crystals in the 

 fragments strewn everywhere over the ground re- 

 flect the brilliant desert light in a myriad dazzling 

 suns and beautiful rainbow effects. 



MOHAVE DESERT. The Mohaye Desert extends 

 from the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada east- 

 ward through the Death Valley region to the Virgin 

 River Valley in the extreme southwestern part of 

 Utah and the northwest corner of Arizona. To the 

 southward it spreads out over the great barren 

 wastes to the desert slopes of the San Bernardino 

 Mountains and their eastern spur, the Chuckawalla 

 Mountains. In southern California the Mohave is 

 mainly an arid plateau 1000 to 3000 feet high, a 

 broad level expanse broken by isolated peaks or 

 short mountain ranges that rise abruptly from the 

 floor-like plain. Here and there are low drainage 

 basins similar in ciiaracter to those of the sage- 

 brush plains of Utah and Nevada. 



Death Valley is a notable desert sink lying be- 

 tween the Panamint and Funeral mountains. This ex- 

 tremely arid valley is sunk like a great bowl deep 

 into the bowels of the earth and is walled by rugged 

 mountains 6000 to 9000 feet high. It is 350 feet 

 below the level of the sea. Seventy miles to the 

 west is Mount Whitney rising nearly 15,000 feet 

 above the sea, giving in close juxtaposition the 

 highest and the lowest points in the United States. 



Flora of the Mohave Desert. With the exception 

 of the upper altitudes of the higher mountains the 

 entire Mohave region belongs to the Lower Sonoran 

 life zone. Throughout this typical desert region 

 the vegetation is sparse, weak in individuals, but 

 surprisingly rich in species, especially in woody or 

 shrubby forms. The principal floral belts are the 

 salt-bush, the creosote, and the yucca. 



The dry lakes or sinks are covered with in- 

 crustations of soluble salts, forming a soft fluffy 

 powder which the prospectors with characteristic 

 aptness call "self-rising soil." They usually support 

 no vegetation except on the margin, where such 

 saline species as Atriplex polycarpa, Atriplex con- 

 fertifolia, and Dondia (Suaeda) suffrutescens are the 

 most conspicuous. 



The creosote, Covillea (Larrea) tridentqta, is the 

 most common and widely distributed species in the 

 desert region. It is as universally spread over the 

 Lower Sonoran zone as is the sage-brush over the 



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