Existing comment:
Botanizing:
The Fremont expedition in 1843-44 to Oregon and California passed through grasslands, desert, and mountains. Members gathered plants, including those familiar to Indians for their medicinal and healing properties. Disaster struck while crossing the Sierra Nevadas into California, when the mule laden with plant specimens plummeted from a precipice to raging waters below. More samples were obtained, only to be soaked upon the return journey in flooding on the Kansas River. Botanical specimens from this and the earlier 1842 expedition to the Rocky Mountains were identified and catalogued by John Torrey and Asa Gray. |