

212 BOTANY OP THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



near Lone Pine (No. 902) ; and along the west shore of Owens Lake (No. 1000) . The 

 plant grows in soil constantly watered and usually sufficiently fresh to drink. The 

 stems grow sometimes quite short, only 10 or 15 cm., and occasionally very tall. At 

 the mouth of Furnace Creek Canon stems measuring 2.23 meters long wore found, 

 reclining upon the adjacent rank herbage. Such long stems often fell over and, lying 

 in a moist place, took root at the apex and formed new phints. 



Fimbriatylis thermalis Wats. Bot. King Surv. 360 (1871). Type locality, "near 

 the Hot Springs in Ruby Valley, Nevada; 0,000 feet altitude." 



This sedge, unlike most of the paludose plants with which it is associated, is con- 

 fined to the desert region and southern intramontane California. It occurred about 

 the springs in Furnace Creek Canon (No. 237); in a marsh at Twelve Mile Spring, 

 Resting Springs Valley ; and on Watkins's ranch, Ash Meadows. Its habitat was wet, 

 alkaline, grassy soil. 



Fimbristylis vahlii (H. B. K.) Nov. Con. & Sp. i. 221 (1815), under Iaoh'pnin; Link, 

 Hort. Berol. i. 287 (1827). Typo locality, "in arenosis Orinoci inter ostia fluminis 

 Apure et villain El Capuchino." 



Near Visalia (No. 1271). This species appears not to have heen reported heforo 

 from the Pacific region of the United States. 



Scirpus americanus Pers. Syn. PI. i. 68 (1805). Type locality, "in Carolina 

 iuferiore." This is the same as S. pun gens Vahl, 



Frequent in the margins of marshes throughout the desert, commonly growing 

 near S. olneyi, but in drier soil. Specimens were collected in Besting Springs Valley 

 (No. 272); at Furnace Creek Ranch (No. 572); in Surprise (No. 718) and Cottonwood 

 (No. 971) canons, Panamint Mountains; and in the valley of the Virgin (No. 1904). 



Scirpus lacustriB occidentalis Wats. Bot. Cal. ii. 218 (1880). Type locality, 

 "from San Diego County [California] to British Columbia and eastward to Texas 

 and Colorado." 



This marsh plant did not occur over large areas at any point in the desert. If 

 was found at the Eagle Borax AVorks and at those near Furnace Creek, in Death 

 Valley; at Ash Meadows; along Owens River and about Owens Lake; along the 

 South Fork of Kern River; about Tehachapi Lake; at the north end of Castac 

 Lake; and in marshy land throughout the Tulare Plains. Specimens were collected 

 in the smaller of the Kern River Lakes, in the Sierra Nevada (No. 1736). The, so- 

 called tule marshes of the desert are oftener made up of Hcirpua olneyi than of this 

 species, 



Scirpus maritimus L. Sp. PI. i. 51 (1753). Type locality European. 



This plant was found in the desert at the Eagle Borax Works, at Furnace Creek, 

 at the borax works near the latter place, and at Saratoga Springs, stations all in 

 Death Valley. Westward it was found about Tehachapi Lake (No. 1124), and in the 

 Tulare Plains, near Bakersfield (No. 1240). The species requires a more saline soil 

 than Scirpus lacustris occidentalis. 



Scirpus microcarpus Presl, Rel. llaenk. i. 195 (1828). Type locality, " in Nootka- 

 Sund, ant in portu Mulgraaviano." 

 Lyon Meadow, Sierra Nevada (No. 1577). 



Scirpus nevadensis Wats. Bot. King Surv. 360 (1871). Type locality, "shore of 

 Soda Lake in Carson Desert, Nevada." 



The rootstock of this plant is 3 to 7 mm. thick, with distant and, in age, torn 

 and evanescent scales, and creeps along beneath the surface of the Bandy alkaline 

 soil in which it grows, at a depth of 10 to 20 cm., often attaining a length of a 

 meter or more. At intervals of a few centimeters it sends up slender, nearly erect 

 branches clothed with scales, and from the tops of these hranches the stems are de- 

 veloped, at first single, after a few years clustered. S. nevadensis, although widely 



