206 BOTANY OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



several places in Resting Springs Valley, California, and at Ash Meadows, Nevada, 

 points in the watershed of the Amargosa River, and in the Vegas Wash, Nevada, 

 about 13 kilometers from the great bend of the Colorado River. West of Death 

 Valley it was seen only at Hot Springs, Pananiint Valley. 



At all its stations the plant grows in soil like that described above, and in tufts 

 sometimes of only a few stems or occasionally attaining the extraordinary diameter 

 of 2 meters. Upon the new material collected the following description is based: 



Plant perennial, densely tufted, (i0 to 80 cm. high; roots large, unbranched, and 

 2 to 3 mm. in diameter near the base, the parenchyma unusually thick; rootstocks 

 short, stout,closely branched ; stems erect, rigid, terete or slightly compressed, striate, 

 leafless between the infloresence and the base; lower sheaths light brown, shining, 

 the blade reduced to a filiform-aristate appendage about 10 mm. long; upper 1 to 4 

 sheaths stramineous to light green, bearing a stiffly erect, spine-pointed, terete blade 

 exactly resembling the stem; inflorescence anthelate, its lower leaf erect, exceeding 

 the panicle, about 10 cm. or less in length, similar to the upper basal leaves ; branches 

 of the inflorescence erect or nearly so, 8 cm. long or much shorter, mostly unbranched, 

 terminated by a 4- to 10-tlowered glomerule; flowers borne singly in the axils of 

 hyaline, scarious, cuspidate bracts, the very short pedicel bearing two prophvlla; 

 sepals 5 to 6 mm. long, oblong, lanceolate, cuspidate, coriaceous, shining, plainly but 

 not prominently few-nerved, scarious-marginod; inner sepals shorter, barely cuspi- 

 date; stamens 6, nearly equaling the inner sepals; anthers when moist about 2.5 mm. 

 long by 1 mm. wide ; ovary oblong, equaling the included style ; stigmas 2 to 2.5 mm. 

 long; capsule narrowly oblong, acute, 3-sided, exceeding the sepals by 1mm. or less, 

 rigid-coriaceous, 3-cellcd, valves spreading but slightly in dehiscence; seeds closely 

 packed and misshapen, with a conspicuous raphe and short tails, body about 1 mm. 

 long, oblong, reticulate, the areas themselves smooth or faintly reticulate, not trans- 

 versely lineolate. 



This rush is most nearly related to Engelmann's Juncus acntus 8ph<vrocarpu# {J. 

 robuatus Wats.) and, less closely, to J. rcmerianm. It agrees with both in its stiff, 

 erect, stem-like, pointed leaves, pseudo-lateral inflorescence, and prophyllate, glom- 

 erate flowers; and difl'ers crucially from both in its. simpler inflorescence and much 

 larger flowers and fruit, from the former additionally in its cuspidate sepals and 

 narrower capsule, and from the latter in its rigid, coriaceous sepals. 



Since milking the observations on the Death Valley specimens I have found in the 

 National Herbarium, under the name J. compressua, a specimen of J. cooperi, col- 

 lected by C. R. Orcutt, in 1888, at Borrego Springs, Colorado Desert, California.. It 

 is probable, therefore, that the species will be found in these deserts of southeastern 

 California, still more widely distributed. Mr. S. B. Parish informs me that he has 

 looked carefully for the plant at Camp Cady, its type locality, but has failed to find 

 it. Dr. Cooper undoubtedly collected the plant farther out in the desert than has 

 been supposed, in some alkaline marsh. ' 



Juncus dubius Engelm. Trans. St. Louis Acad. ii. 459 (1868). Type locality, 

 "in Clark's meadow, near the Big Tree Grove, Mariposa. California, at an altitude of 

 0,500 feet." 



Near Visalia (No. 1276), and in the valley of Kaweah River (Nos. 1308, 1754). 



Juncus effusus L. Sp. PI. i.326 (1753), Type locality European. 



In the valley of the Kaweah River (Nos. 1302, 1334). The flowers and capsules of 

 these specimens are unusually small. 



Juncus nevadensis Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. xiv. 303 (1879). Type locality, "iu 

 the Sierra Nevada, from Kern County to Oregon." 



Nos, 1361, 1498, 1525, 1588, 1644, 1652, 1673, 1717, 1721, 1727. 1731, 2095. These speci- 

 mens, all collected in the Sierra Nevada, constitute a series ranging from typical 



Amended from Bull. Torr. Club, xix. 309-11 (1892). 



