Mar. 22, 1924 
Tissue Fluids of Indicator Plants 
9 i 3 
walks across them, and when viewed from such a distance that the 
scattered hummocks of vegetation can not be seen, they are gleaming 
white. 
These flats are practically devoid of vegetation except for the two 
extreme halophytes, Allenrolfea occidentals and Salicornia utahensis f both 
half shrubs. Annual species may start growth, and even flower on 
these hummock^ but this is due only to their capacity for rapid growth, 
which may be considerably advanced before the salts which have been 
leached out of the upper layers of soil by the spring rains again become 
highly concentrated at the surface. Probably any of the annual species 
which are reported from the ridges in the flats (see greasewood-shadscale 
association) may begin, or perhaps even occasionally complete, a very 
dwarfed development on the low hummocks which constitute the vege¬ 
tated fraction of the salt flats. The most characteristic of these species 
is the minute Capsella elliptica Meyer, which was found in countless 
numbers on the lower portions of the ridges and even on the hummocks. 
These plants were, however, practically all matured at the time of our 
first visit, on May 28. Thus they must be characterized by early 
germination and extremely rapid development. 
Water is generally found at a relatively short distance below the 
surface. This may differ greatly in concentration from place to place, 
as is shown by the following determinations (Table XII) based on samples 
from shallow borings. 
Table XII.— Physicochemical constants for spring , ground, and surface water , Tooele 
Valley , Utah 
Num¬ 
ber of 
sample. 
Depth to water, in 
inches. 
Chief constituent ol 
vegetation. 
Freez¬ 
ing 
point 
depres¬ 
sion, 
A. 
Atmos¬ 
pheres, 
osmotic 
concen¬ 
tration, 
P. 
Specific 
electrical 
conduc¬ 
tivity, 
K. 
Ratio, 
conduc¬ 
tivity to 
depres¬ 
sion, 
K/A. 
Chlo- 
rids per 
liter. 
Cl. 
I 
Less than 12. 
Allenrolfea and 
2-75 
33 -i 
O.0608 
0.0220 
Salicornia. 
2 
About 12. 
2.52 
30-4 
•0597 
.0236 
24.5 
3 
About 26. 
.do. 
3.21 
38.4 
.0704 
.0219 
31-4 
4 
About 16. 
Sterile. 
3*79 
45-4 
.0750 
.OI97 
37-0 
c 
Unrecorded. 
.do. 
8.01 
0^.2 
. II08 
.OI38 
72. 
D 
6 
Thermal springs.... 
1.94 
VO 
23-3 
.0689 
•0355 
/ 0 
19*3 
7 
Drainage channels.. 
2.5 1 
30.2 
.0470 
.0187 
24.9 
8 
I - 79 
21.6 
.0462 
.0257 
3°-4 
9 
.do. 
1.79 
21.6 
.0476 
.0265 
17.7 
10 
Spring. 
0.67 
8.0 
.0203 
•0305 
6.2 
11 
Drainage from 
0.68 
8.1 
.0211 
.0312 
6.2 
12 
spring. 
Surface water. 
4-03 
48.3 
.0865 
.0214 
38-5 
Sample 1 was taken from a small hummock on the generally sterile 
mud flats near Bermester. Samples 2-5 were taken within a narrow 
radius on the highly saline, and largely sterile, mud flats near the warm 
springs at the foot of the Stansbury Mountains northwest of Grantsville. 
These thermal springs differ in temperature and salinity. Sample 6 
was taken from the deepest of the three springs, on June 18. Water 
from the drainage channels from this group of springs was taken in two 
places on June 18 (samples 7-8) and again on July 1 (sample 9). 
