752 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEEEITORIES. 



]II. The flora of the Fire-Hole Basin is distinct, from the fact that it is 

 a region so covered with hot springs and geysers, giving in the geyser- 

 ite, scattered everywhere, an unnatural soil, and creating an artificial 

 warmth. The geyserite is a 'bleak, barren waste, supporting only plants 

 peculiar to itself, and seeming to kill everything of a different nature. 

 A great number of the hot springs have made deposits until they have 

 almost closed themselves up. On top of this a soil has collected, the 

 spring underneath keeps it warm, and the luxuriant growth of a regular 

 bot-bed is the result. The plants that grow in such situations are uot 

 all of them different in species from those that grow in the valleys near 

 by, bnt they spring up mucb ranker and attain two or three times their 

 usual size. To some plants of common species the soil gives such a dis- 

 colored appearance as to make them at first scarcely recognizable. For 

 instance, take the Gentians that are represented here so profusely. 6^^. 

 detonsa, G. affiiiis, and G. Amarella were repeatedly met with disguised 

 by i)erfectly blacJc stems and veins, leaves unusually dark, and petals 

 •with the black aj)pearance common to dried specimens. This was the 

 case only in the immediate neighborhood of the hot springs. Elsewhere 

 they retained their original coloring, though growing muqh ranker than 

 I ever saw them. 



The plants growing on the geyserite are chiefly of the composite 

 family, represented by the genera Solidago, Senecio, Chcenactis, Linosy- 

 ris, Antennaria, and Achillea. In some of the hot springs in both Upper 

 and Lower Geyser Basins an Alga was discovered growing, but it came 

 East in such a condition that its species could not be determined. Also 

 in the Lower Basin were found some orange-colored confer void specimens, 

 concerning which Charles H. Peck, esq., to whom they were sent, re- 

 marks, "I believe they have been described under the name Conferva 

 aura7itiaca, but it is now generally regarded as the primary state of some 

 plant of higher order, moss or fern." 



In all this western region the botanist notices the absence of one great 

 group of plants. The Ferns are almost unrepres^ted here, owing to 

 the great dryness of the climate. Being fond of dark, damp x>laces, 

 they are seldom found in this elevated region, where the air is dry and 

 pure. Occasionally, in some dark and unusually damp caiion, a few 

 stunted forms were found, and then in no great abundance. Two locali- 

 ties only were noted where Ferns were found in any size and abundance : 

 once in the new Geyser Basin, discovered on Shoshone Lake, being 

 there the hot-bed growth before mentioned ; and next under the shadow 

 of the Tetons, on the eastern slope, where a mountain-stream had made 

 a rich deposit, and no sunlight could come on account of the immense 

 growth of Goniferw. But seven genera were found, including ten spe- 

 cies, viz, one Fteris, two Fellceas, one Gryptogramme, two Aspidimns^ 

 one Gystopteris, one Botrychium, and two Woodsias. Of these the Gys- 

 topteris fragilis was by far the most abundant. Botrychium Imiarioides^ 

 var. ohUquum, was found only in the Geyser Basin. 



Mosses were very abundant, both along the cold streams of dark 

 canons and also upon the bare rocks of the mountain tops. A consider- 

 able collection was made, numbering fifty-two species. Some were easily 

 determined by comparing with dried and labeled specimens, but the 

 doubtful ones were sent to Leo Lesquereux, esq., Columbus, Ohio, who 

 has done them full justice. It will be noticed that some were unable 

 to be determined on account of having no fruit, especially sj)ecimens of 

 the genus Bryum. The order used in cataloguing them is that of thg 

 " Musci Boreali-Americani-^ of Sullivaut and Lesquereux. "^ 



Lichens were common on the volcanic rock of the Teton Eange. Some 



