4 
BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS IN WESTERN WYOMING. 179 
botanist with new and peculiar forms. Before taking final leave 
of the Yellowstone Park district, it may be proper to allude briefly 
to the character of the forest grow jh, so obtrusively forced on the 
attention of the traveller. Not less than ninety-nine. per cent. 
of the pine growth of this district is made up of the single 
species, Pinus contorta Dougl. Mile after mile of continuous 
forest may be traversed without seeing any other arborescent 
` species, and their tall, straight, uniform trunks and scattering 
foliage will be always associated with the monotonous and dis- 
agreeable features of the park scenery. Only where the blazing 
camp-fire sends forth its grateful warmth to relieve the ordinary 
chill of a night temperature, where the thermometer in August 
ranges between 36°F. and 14°F., do we realize a manifest utility in 
this wide-spread forest production. Occasionally, in low moist 
* ground, the balsam (Abies grandis) comes in to vary the sombre 
scenery, and add a deeper gloom to these shaded recesses. On 
higher mountain ridges, Abies Engelmanni Parry makes its -ap- 
pearance, always indicating an elevation of between eight thou- 
Sand and nine thousand feet above the sea. With this latter is 
associated, as in the higher mountains farther south, Pinus flezilis 
- Torr., but at no point was seen in this district the more exclusively 
alpine form, Pinus Balfouriana Murray. 
Abies Menziesii Lindl., which is credited to the park district in 
Prof. Porter’s list, was ue seen by me, and as my attention was _ 
` particularly directed to this'subject of forest distribution, it could 
hardly have been overlooked. It is possible that some of the pe- 
culiar forms of Abies Engelmanii, in which the cones with their 
~ lengthened scales. approach Abies Menziesii (though still plainly 
; distinct), may have been mistaken in herbarium specimens for this 
tter species, which was not met with on our route after. leaving 
Wind River valley. 
Our route from the sonthern head of Yellowstone Lake ‘passed 
_ by an almost insensible grade to one of: the numerous eastern 
branches of Snake River; thence, skirting along the irregular 
mountain range to our left, we passed in full view of the Grand - 
-Tétons on our right, from which, making a sharp détour to the 
ast, we reached a low divide at the head of Wind River. On this 
Part of our route, being late in the season and on a hurried 
: march, but little opportunity was afforded for botanizing. The 
aspect e a 
