International Excursion in America. 
INTERNATIONAL PHYTOGEOGRAPHICAL EXCURSION 
(I.P.E.) IN AMERICA, 1913. III. 
(continued from />. 41). 
The Deserts of the Great Basin. 
N the morning of August 23rd the members of the International 
party awoke to find themselves travelling through the alkali 
deserts of the basin of the Green River, in the State of Utah. 
These deserts extend for thousands of square miles within the area of 
the Great Basin, centering round Great Salt Lake, and in alternation 
with the sage-brush deserts cover practically the whole of the 
enormous arid region between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra 
Nevada. The dominant plant over wide stretches is the shrubby 
greasewood ( Sarcobatus vermiculatus) a shrub about three or four 
feet high with bright green succulent leaves. The greasewood 
association alternates with the grey-leaved sage-brush ( Artemisia 
tridentata) the most characteristic plant of the whole arid region 
alluded to. Behind the stretches of level desert rose striking flat- 
topped hills edged with vertical cliffs running down into fans of 
talus. For the most part these hills appeared quite bare of 
vegetation, but on some of the higher ones dark shrubs appeared, 
probably Juniperus Utahensis. By the side of the railroad track 
were Snlsola, Chrysothamnus, Cleome lutea , Helianthus, Gutierrezia, 
the yellowness of nearly all the flowers visible being a striking 
feature. Melilotus alba , species of Salix, and even Typlia were 
seen in places along the track. Where the land was irrigable good 
crops of oats and alfalfa were being raised, and trees, particularly 
cottonwoods and Lombardy poplars, were flourishing. 
The Wasatch Mountains forming a westward extension of the 
Rockies and separating the basin of the Green River (a tributary 
of the Colorado River) from the Great Salt Lake basin were soon 
entered and the deserts temporarily left behind. 
The picturesque Price River canyon, lined with Populus angnsti- 
folia, Salix spp. and Acer Negundo along the streamside, was 
entered at Castlegate, and scrub and coniferous trees, reminiscent 
of the Rocky Mountains, were soon encountered. In the lateral 
gullies was scrub of Qnercus, Rhus, Cercocarpus and Fendlera : Finns 
ponderosa appeared on the slopes, and soon afterwards Douglas fir. 
The drier slopes nearer the line were still covered with sage-brush, 
here growing more densely. On the further side of the Wasatch 
