ROBINSON. — ALSINEjE. 205 



4- *- Sepals ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than the petals (ex- 

 cept in A. macradenia, var. Pariskiorum). 



A. compacta, Coville. Root thick, ligneous: caudex much 

 branched and bearing very closely tufted rosulately spreading subulate 

 glaucous leaves ; the latter not exceeding 2 lines in length, minutely 

 glandular, ciliate : stems slender, an inch or more in height, simple or 

 sparingly branched, almost naked, the cauline leaves being few and 

 much reduced: flowers terminal on the branches: sepals 1^ lines long, 

 scarious-margined, thickened in the middle, attenuate. — Proc. Biol. 

 Soc. Wash. vii. 67 ; Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. iv. 70, t. v. — Moun- 

 tains of Tulare Co., Calif., Coville, August, 1891. 



A. congesta, Nutt. Smooth, or more rarely glandular-pubes- 

 cent : stems slender, simple, 5-14 inches high, numerous, springing from 

 a matted non-ligneous caudex : basal leaves gramineous-setaceous, |— 3 

 inches long, ciliolate-serrate near the base: cauline leaves rather dis- 

 tant, gradually reduced: flowers sessile or shortly and unequally 

 pedicelled in 1-3 dense heads (subtended by 1-several pairs of sca- 

 rious-margined bracts) : sepals carinate, obscurely 3-nerved, membra- 

 nous-margined, 2 lines long, considerably exceeded by the narrowly 

 oblong petals : stigmas not strictly capitate. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, 

 FI. i. 178 ; Torr. Frem. Rep. 87 ; Wats. Bot. King Exp. 39 ; Porter 

 & Coulter, Fl. Col. 13 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 09 ; Greene, Fl. 

 Francis. 123 (excl. syn.) ; Mrs. Brandegee, Zoe, ii. 161. — Rocky 

 Mts. of Colorado and Wyoming to the Yosemite (ace. Mrs. Brandegee) 

 and northward to Washington, Suksdorf. 



Var. suffrutescens. Caudex sometimes, perhaps always, very 

 ligneous ; its branches becoming 2-3 lines in diameter, bearing fasci- 

 cled sub-equal leaves (an inch or less in length) : flowers somewhat 

 smaller (sepals 1^ lines long) in spherical capitate umbels : pedicels 

 slender, 2-3 times as long as the calyx : stigmas capitate. — Brewerina 

 suffrutescens, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 620, under A. congesta ; 

 Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 69; Wats. Bibl. Index, 95; Greene, Fl. 

 Francis. 123. — California, Cisco, Bolander Sf Kellogg; Emigrant 

 Gap, Jones; Tulare Co., Coville $ Funston, 1504. A form too well 

 marked in its foliage, ligneous caudex, and allium-like inflorescence to 

 be united with the typical A. congesta, yet appearing to intergrade 

 with it. One of the transitional forms has been collected in Sierra 

 Valley by Lemmon. 



Var. subcongesta, Wats. Caudex more or less ligneous, stems 

 smooth, glandular or pulverulent-pubescent, often knotted with enlarged 

 nodes : flowers as in the type, but borne in more or less expanded di- 



