ARTICLE XIV. 
A SKETCH OF THE BOTANY OF THE BASIN OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE OF 
UTAH. 
BY E. DURAND. 
Tus sketch has been suggested by the examination of a collection of botanical speci- 
mens, made in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake City, by Mrs. Jane Carrington, and 
placed in my hands through the kind remembrance of our colleague, Colonel Thomas L. 
Kane. 
All the plants that have, thus far, been received from that extraordinary region, and 
have been recorded in the various botanical reports of Professor Torrey, were collected by 
Colonel Fremont, in 1843 and 45; by Major Stansbury, in 1849 and ’50; and by Lieut. 
Beckwith, in 1854. These collections, together with that lately handed to me by Col. 
Kane, although affording but a limited number of species, are well deserving of a particu- 
lar notice:—Ist, As exhibiting two distinct sets of plants; some vegetating almost ex- 
clusively in a soil saturated with saline principles; others never growing inside of such 
soils. 2d, As evincing in the latter set of plants a complete identity with those of the 
surrounding parts of Oregon, contrary to the pre-conceived idea that the vegetation of the 
belt of the Great Salt Lake, (a lake, the waters of which contain 22 per cent. of saline 
matter,) would be stamped with a peculiar character, originating in the ambient action of 
an atmosphere supposed to be more or less charged with saline vapours, or with the pul- 
verulent saline efflorescence, which, in dry weather, covers the whole surface of the low 
plains, and must be dispersed by the winds on the surrounding valleys. 3d, On account 
of the limited number of distinct species that have been afforded by the four collections 
above mentioned; a circumstance inducing the conjecture, that the vegetation of the Great 
Salt Lake Basin is, in reality, much less diversified than that of the other sections of Ore- 
gon. 
