68 Rhodora [April 



northern form is too close to it to be separated even as a variety. 

 The achenes (excluding the bristles) are indistinguishable. Two 

 specimens in the Gray Herbarium indicate a remarkable range for 

 S. validus, or a very closely allied species. Aitchinson 465 and 68g 

 from Afghanistan have the lax, drooping umbel of ferruginous spike- 

 lets and the general aspect of .S. validus. The style is 2-cleft, the 

 achenes, not fully mature, are flavescent, 2.1 mm. long, rounded obo- 

 vate. The scales furnish the only distinction; these are minutely 

 pubescent along the midrib and at the summit with soft appressed 

 hairs, not thick and stubby as in S. validus. 



SciRPUs occidentalis (Watson), n. comb. 



Scirpiis lacustris var. occidentalis Watson, Bot. Cal. 2:218 (1880). 



Perennial: rootstock horizontal, scaly: culm erect 1.2-2 m. high, 

 .5-2 cm. in diameter at base, attenuate upward, usually hard espe- 

 cially in eastern specimens, olive green, smooth, minutely striate, 

 leartess, or basal sheaths produced into acuminate blades broader 

 than found in S. validus and sometimes 20 cm. long; sheaths with 

 hyaline border becoming fibrillose ; lowest sheath usually somewhat 

 indurated: inflorescence a compound, usually erect and congested 

 umbel of few to many spikelets, subtended by a single erect, attenu- 

 ate, terete or obscurely 3-sided bract, channeled only at the base 

 (1-7 cm. long) ; rays 0-5 cm. (rarely over 3 cm.) long, rather stout, 

 plano-convex, the margins scabrous ; bractlets vaginate, pale, spotted 

 with ruddy brown, scarious, lacerate-hmbriate, slightly viscid-pubes- 

 cent especially toward the summit, abruptly mucronate ; secondary 

 rays when present 0.3-2 cm. long: spikelets in capitate clusters of 

 2-7 or solitary (the greater number capitate in every umbel), pale 

 grayish brown to dark rusty brown, cylindrical or ellipsoidal, obtuse, 

 4-5 by TO-18 mm., densely fruited, the scales overlapping h their 

 length or more : scales ^-^ longer than the achenes, oblong-ovate, 

 obtuse and emarginate, spotted with ruddy brown, viscidpuliescent 

 along the midrib and on the upper third with stubby hairs, the 

 hyaline margin lacerate, ciliate ; the strong, pale midrib exserted mto 

 a prominent scabrous tip : style 2-cleft to near the base ; bristles 6, 

 slightly shorter than the achene, reddish brown, retrorsely barbed : 

 achene dark grayish brown, obovoid, abruptly acuminate 1.7 1.9 by 

 2.5-3 mm., in section unequally biconvex, hexagonally reticulate 

 under a lens. 



Type locality: "California ranging from San Diego county to 

 British Columbia and eastward to Texas and Colorado." 



Scirpus lacustris var. occidentalis Watson seems to ha\-e no type 

 specimen extant. Dr, Watson cites no definite specimens and there 

 is no specimen of S. occidentalis from San Diego county in the Gray 

 or National Herbaria of a date previous to the publication of var. 



