400 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



leafy stem, in these specimens more pubescent than in those from Cali- 

 fornia, and' the flowers more numerous and spicate. It was thought 

 to be of the Avicularia section, but the present specimens refer it 

 rather to the section Aconogonon, along with P. alpinum or polymor- 

 phum. Professor Brewer describes the root as annual, which I should 

 hardly suppose ; the leaves are mostly sessile, ovate, 1 to 2 or even 3 

 inches long ; ochrese chestnut -colored, obliquely truncate. Perianth 

 barely a line long, tapering to a very acute or almost stipitate base : 

 achenium smooth, with broad faces, twice the length of the perianth. 

 In California it belongs to the Sierra Nevada : it was collected by 

 Professor Brewer himself, Professor Torrey, and by Miss N. J. Davis, 

 to whom it is appropriately dedicated.* 



* Professor Brewer arranges the Californiau Polygona of the Avicularia section 

 into : — 



1. Annuals, with stems not at all striate: P coarctatum Dougl. and P. Califor- 

 nicum Meisner. 



2. Annuals, with stems striate, at least towards the base : P. tenuis Michx., P. 

 ramosissimum Michx., and P. aviculare L. 



3. Perennials, with stems woody at base, and branches slender ; bark chestnut- 

 brown : P. Paronychia Cham. & Schlecht., and the two following new species. 



" P. Shastense, Brewer. Woody ; branches prostrate ; leaves lanceolate, plane 

 or at least not revolute, either blunt or acute : sheaths inconspicuous, scarious and 

 much torn : flowers in a very loose leafy spike, 1 - 3 in an axil, 2-3 lines long, 

 on pedicels nearly or quite as long : styles \ the length of the ovary or less. The 

 base of the crabbed stem is of very hard dark wood, sometimes half an inch in 

 diameter. Branches prostrate, crooked, rough with old leaf-scars, 4-8 inches long 

 and a line or less in diameter, leafless except for the inch or two near the end. Joints 

 usually but 1 or 2 lines long. The silvery sheaths are very inconspicuous. Flowers 

 conspicuous, white, bright rose, or red. Perianth tapering to a very acute or almost 

 stipitate base which is sometimes corrugated ; the segments broadly obovate or 

 orbicular, sometimes emarginate, veined, usually deepest colored along the middle. 

 The 2 or 3 outer segments are channelled, making the flower triangular. Sierra 

 Nevada in exposed places, on dry ashy soil, Mt. Shasta to Carson Pass, Torrey, 

 Brewer. 



" P. Bolanderi, Brewer. Woody ; branches erect and slender, with numerous 

 lateral flowering spikes above : leaves minute, cuspidate-mucronate; sheaths nerve- 

 less, scarious and much torn: flowers commonly solitary in the axils, l£ lines 

 long, on pedicels \ as long, rather acute at the base, the segments elliptical and 1- 

 nerved ; styles | as long as ovary or less. — The gnarled and crabbed base is 

 often an inch or more in diameter and of very hard wood, bearing broomlike 

 tufts of very slender woody branches. These are very numerous, erect, nearly 

 straight, 10-18 inches high, wiry or filiform, half a line in diameter, the joints 

 6-10 lines long, almost naked below, and bearing at nearly every upper node a 



