

CATALOGUE OF SPECIES. 205 



Calochortus venustus Benth. Trans. Hort. Soc. Load. scr. 2, i. 412. (1831-35)— 

 Dougl. MS. Type locality Californian. 

 In the southern Sierra Nevada (Nos. 1097, 1176). 



Calochortus venustus purpurascens Wats. Proc. Amor. Acad. xiv. 206 (1X70). 

 Type locality Californian but not definitely given. 



In the Tojon Mountains (No. 1177). The three inner parts of the perianth have 

 in some cases a deep purple color, in others a coppery brown. 



Veratrum californicum Durand, PL Pratt. 103 (1855). Type locality, "on Deer 

 Creek, one of the affluents of the Sacramento river," California. 

 Near Mineral King (No. 1465). 



Zygadenus venenosus Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. xiv. 279 (1879). Typo locality 

 not given; range "California (Monterey and Mariposa Counties) to British Columbia 

 and east to Utah and Idaho." 



Near Mineral King (No. 1538). 



JTJNCACE.SI. 



Juncus balticus Willd. Berlin. Mag. iii. 298 (1809). Type locality, "an den san- 

 digen Meeresufern bei Warnemtinde," Germany. 



Nos. 12, 21, 218, 226, 227, 362, 711, 1125, 1634, 1715. In the hope that some new facts 

 concerning the structure and distribution of the forms of this species might be 

 learned, care was taken to observe all the variations of ,/. balticus, and to collect the 

 variant forms, together with their intergrades. In the lower altitudes of both the San 

 Bernardino Valley and the Mohave Desert region occurs a Juncus with compressed 

 stems, and often with a well-developed radical leaf. This plant has therefore the 

 distinctive characters of Juncus mexicanus, and, although I have been unable to com- 

 pare it with the type specimen, undoubtedly belongs to that species. Between this 

 form and the terete-stemmed, leafless J. balticus of the Sierra Nevada there exists a 

 perfect series of intergrades. One of the specimens (No. 1125, from the salt marsh 

 of Tehachapi Lake) presents from the large size of its flowers very nearly the appear- 

 ance of J. leseurii. For the present the name Juncus balticus is applied to the whole 

 collection. 



Throughout the desert region in every permanently moist place, especially those 

 in which there is a decided element of alkali, this plant is abundant. At Ash Mead- 

 ows it forms an important part of the natural pasturage. The higher altitudes of the 

 desert mountains were not examined at a season when the presence or absence of the 

 plant could be ascertained, but in the Sierra Nevada (Nos. 1634, 1715) specimens 

 were collected as high up as Whitney Meadows, at an altitude of about 3,000 meters. 



Juncus bufonius L. Sp. PL i. 328 (1753). Type locality European. 



Isolated specimens of this cosmopolitan Juneus were seen in a few out-of-the-way 

 spots of moist soil in Willow Creek Canon, Panamint Mountains (No. 810); on the 

 North Fork of Kern River, near Kernville; and at Willow Spring, Antelope V r alley. 



Juncus cooperi Engelm. Trans. St, Louis Acad. ii. 590 (1868). Type locality, 

 "Camp Cady, in the southern part of the State of California." 



On the evening of our arrival at Bennett Wells I walked eastward from camp a 

 few hundred meters to the margin of the salt-marsh in the bottom of the valley, and 

 there, amidst the other vegetation peculiar to the densely alkaline moist soil of the 

 place, I found in fruit a Juncus (No. 204) evidently related to, but clearly distinct 

 from, both J. rcemerianus and J. acutm splmrocarpm. A subsequent examination 

 showed it to be the long-lost J. cooperi. It was later found in several places in 

 Death Valley: about the old Eagle Borax Works, on the east side of the valley 

 opposite Bennett Wells, near the Coleman Borax Works, about 6.5 kilometers south 

 of Furnace Creek Ranch, 3 kilometers east of the same ranch in Furnace Creek Canon 

 (No. 582), and at Saratoga Springs. Eastward from Death Valley it was found at 



