12 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 
noted as a form of A. flavus Nutt., previously collected on Green 
River. Prof. Gray, to whom specimens were sent under the above 
name, recognized its distinct character. I have therefore ventured 
to compliment the actual discoverer, as well as the chief elucidator 
of this difficult genus of western North American plants, by nam- 
ing it Astragalus Grayi, n. sp. (see appendix). A side trip by 
a detached topographical party to the rugged peak named by Capt. 
Jones ** Washakee’s Needles” revealed, in a few fragments brought 
back by the party, a more distinct alpine flora than any yet seen, 
including Douglasia montana Gray, and a most singular depressed 
Townsendia, with its large single heads immersed in a globular 
mass of lanulose coated leaves. This, as far as the imperfect 
material affords the means of judging, is probably an undescribed 
species, to which the name of Townsendia condensata, n. sp., may 
be provisionally applied. In the lower mountain ranges there is a 
succession of charming subalpine meadows, set off with limpid 
lakes and traversed by clear ice-cold brooks, which, among other 
well known plants, furnished the following additions to our list, 
viz: Astragalus oroboides Hornem., @nothera breviflora Torr. and 
Gray, Aplopappus inuloides Torr. and Gray, Artemisia incompta 
Nutt., and the singularly neat European species Myosotis alpestris 
L. In the valley of Stinking Water (a most inappropriate name for 
a clear mountain stream abounding in the finest trout), at a single 
locality, was collected the rare Chenopodiaceous plant character- 
ized by Dr. Torrey as Endolepis Suckleyi Torr. This, in the un- 
published revision of this family by Mr. S. Watson, is to be 
included in the genus Atriplex (A. Endolepis Watson, ined.). 
excellent figure of this plant in Vol. xii, pl. 3, of *‘ Pacifie Railroad 
Reports,”- only fails to represent the straggling habit, densely 
divaricate branches and the blistered, mealy-dusted leaves of this 
species. It seems to affect a peculiar soil, so strongly impreg- 
nated with saline ingredients as to be entirely bare of all other 
vegetation. 
In our course up the valley of Stinking Water there was little 
of botanical interest to attract the attention. The prevalent rocks 
were composed of a coarse igneous conglomerate, which weathered 
into the most fantastic shapes, presenting on either hand sharp 
pinnacles, toppling columns and chimney peaks; but the uniform-- 
ity of soil derived from its disintegration was unfavorable to a 
rich development of floral forms. We accordingly note briefly the 
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