538 SOILS. 



near Reno, Nevada, at an altitude which cannot be much less 

 than 4.500 feet. 



The tussocks formed by this grass, which are unfortunately 

 not shown in the figure, sometimes appear as veritable little 

 grass trees, and when denuded by the browsing of cattle seem 

 like trunks 18 and 20 inches high. It is therefore very easily 

 recognized; but it should be noted that in view of the extra- 

 ordinary range of its tolerance, shown above, its scattered 

 occurrence does not necesarily indicate irreclaimable land. 



BUSHY SAMPHIRE. (Allenrolfca occidentalis (Wats.) 

 Ktze.) Fig. 83. 



This plant is locally called greasewood, but as this name is 

 much more commonly used for Sarcobatus venniculatus, it 

 seems best to call Allenrolfea " bushy samphire," as it closely 

 resembles the true samphire (Salicornia). 



Bushy Samphire usually grows in low sinks, in clay soil 

 which in winter is excessively wet, and in summer becomes a 

 " dry bog." Wherever the plant grows luxuriantly the salt 

 content is invariably high, the total salts varying from 327,- 

 ooo pounds per acre, to a depth of three feet, to 494,520 

 pounds in four feet. The salts consist mainly of Glauber's and 

 common salts (a. maximum of about 275,000 pounds each); 

 salsoda varies from 2,360 to 4,800 pounds per acre. The 

 percentage of common salt and total salts is higher than for 

 any other plant investigated, and the content of Glauber's salt 

 is also excessive. The areas over which this plant grows 

 must therefore be considered among the most hopeless of 

 alkali lands, for although its salts are " white,'' submergence 

 during winter precludes the growth of Australian saltbushes. 

 Full underdrainage alone could reclaim the soil-areas it occu- 

 pies. Bushy Samphire is common on low-lying alkali lands 

 in the upper San Joaqnin Valley, California, and extends 

 northward along the eastern slopes of the Coast Range to 

 Suisun Bay. It is also abundant in the Death Valley region, 

 apparently overlapping the southward range of the Sarco- 

 batus, the greasewood properly so-called. 



DWARF SAMPHIRE (Salicornia subtcnninalis, Parish, and 

 other species of the interior) ; Fig. 84. 



The three or four species of Dwarf Samphire which grow 



