P. Pelka 1946 Journal 2 June 21 Southern Washoe, Lyon, and Storey counties, Nevada. The following observations were made during an excursion conducted by members of the faculty of the University of Nevada for the meeting of the AAAS at Reno. This excursion, the first of two held on consecutive days, included visits to Pyramid Lake, "desert" east of Reno, Virginia City, and Steamboat Springs. Travelled north from Reno through Spanish Spring Valley. Large expanses of the hills to either side of the road before descent into the valley are covered with cheat grass (Bromus tectorum) which indicated repeated range fires. The former vegetation was sagebrush and associated species. Spanish Spring Peak to the east of the valley rises to 6900 feet and is covered with "scars" of cheat grass as a result of a large range fire in 1944. At a stop on an alluvial fan in Spanish Spring Valley, W.D. Billings, plant ecologist, pointed out species of the sagebrush association or, according to him, "steppe": Artemisia tridentata, Grayia spinosa (Chap sage), Chrysothamnus spp. (rabbitbrush), and Atriplex hymenoides (Indian rice-gran). On the hills to the west occurred scattered trees of Juniperus utahensis. Plavine Peak (8270 feet) to the southwest