GENEEAL EEPORT. XXV 



the plains east of the Rocky Mountains a vast pasture for the bison, deer, and 

 antelope, are here unknown. There are, indeed, various other species more 

 or less abundant in localities, but always growing in sparsely scattered tuft^ 

 and dying away with the early summer heats, or to be then found only in 

 favored spots in the mountain canons. The two or three species that may be 

 said to mat into a sward are confined to alkaline meadows and are nearly 

 worthless for pasturage. 



Of the more predominant species which form the mass of the shrubby 

 and perennial vegetation of the entire region some are confined almost 

 wholly to the more saline localities. Of these the Halostachys occidentalism 

 abundant about the sinks of the Garsoil and Humboldt Rivers and other 

 similar places, is an exclusively alkaline shrub, growing where almost no 

 other plant will. Much more widely distributed and abundant is the Sarco- 

 hatus vermiculatus, found nearly everywhere in the lower valleys where there 

 is a decided amount of alkali, but rarely extending beyond such limits. The 

 more frequent plants accompanying these are Salicornia herhacea and several 

 species of 8uceda, and other mostly Chenopodiaceous plants, and if there are 

 grasses at all, Brizopyrum spicatum and Spartina gracilis. 



On the somewhat less alkaline and drier portions of the valleys are 

 found in frequent abundance Obione confertifolia and canescens or the nearly as 

 common Grayia polygaloides^ and rather less abundantly Arte7nisia spinescens, 

 Eurotia lanata, and Kochia prostrata. Sometimes mingled with them, but 

 wholly free from alkaline preferences and beyond their range usurping entire 

 predominence, is the " everlasting sagebrush," the Artemisia tridentata. 

 This is by far the most prevalent of all species, covering valleys and foothills 

 in broad stretches farther than the eye can reach, the growth never so dense 

 as to seriously obstruct the way but very uniform over large surfaces, very 

 rarely reaching the saddle-height of a mule and ordinarily but half that 

 altitude. 



The " Broom-sage," Linosyris graveolens, sometimes occurs in consider- 

 able abundance along the dry valleys, often accompanied by Tetradymia 

 canescens, but upon the gravelly foothills the smaller L. viscidiflora is much 

 more frequent. Here the Artemisia tridentata is occasionally associated with 

 or yields to the similar but smaller species A. trijida. On the foothills only 

 and not ascending above the base of the mountains Purshia tridentata is 

 widely distributed, and of frequent occurrence with it in Western Nevada are 

 iv 



