~ 
10 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 
northeasterly course over Green River basin, thence skirting along 
the southern spurs of the Wind River range. The main conti- 
nental divide was crossed at South Pass. From this point fol- 
lowing a more direct northerly course we reached Camp Brown 
in the Wind River valley on July Ist. 
The chief botanical interest on this portion of our route was 
comprised in the many suggestive associations with the early dis- 
coveries of Nuttall nearly forty years previous. Though this 
route has been repeatedly traversed by exploring parties, lying 
in fact on the well-beaten track of western emigrant travel pre- 
vious to the construction of the Pacific Railroad, not a few of the 
plants then collected and described have remained up to this 
time desiderata in herbaria. 
Unusually copious spring rains previous to our journey had 
freshened the vegetation of these usually arid tracts, so that our 
necessarily slow and tedious marches, encumbered by a heavily 
laden wagon train, were enlivened (at least to the botanist) by 
unwonted verdure. Even the repulsive “ sage plains” and “ grease 
wood” flats, so monotonous and forbidding to the ordinary trav- 
eller, yielded up unexpected treasures of rare plants. Among 
these the evanescent annuals were in great profusion, including 
Cleome aurea Hook., Calyptridium roseum S. Watson, GZnothera 
Andina Nutt., @nothera scapoidea Nutt., Astragalus Geyeri Gray, 
Astragalus pictus Gray, Chenactis Douglasii H. & A., Plantago — 
Patagonica Jacq., Gilia inconspicua Dougl., and Oxytheca dendro- 
idea Nutt. In the moist grassy valley of Little Sandy were also 
found quite abundantly Capsella divaricata Walp. and Gentiana 
humilis Stev., heretofore overlooked by collectors in this region. 
Of perennial plants, serving somewhat to relieve the prevalent 
and monotonous growth of Artemisia, Tetradymia and Linosyris, ~ 
_ comprising what is popularly known as “wild sage,” and the 
equally forbidding .Chenopodiaceous shrubs confounded under the a 
common term of “ grease-wood,” may be noted several species of — 
~~ including A. Purshii Dougl., A. lotiflorus Hook, A» 
glareosus Dougl., A. junceus Nutt., and now collected for the first , 
time since Nuttall’s original discovery, A. pubentissimus Nutt. 
and A. flavus Nutt., the former a not uncommon roadside plant, | 
and the latter quite abundant along the margins of dry water- 
courses, at the foot of steep clay buttes. 
™ m knolls adjoining Green River still another i inter- 
