304 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



leaves subulate-acerose, rigid, pungent, tending to be squarrosely 

 spreading, connate, 3-4 lines long : flowers usually numerous in 

 spreading cymes, rarely subsolitary : sepals attenuate, acuminate, 

 often purplish, not strongly nerved, 2-2i- lines long, exceeding the 

 more or less pointed petals and ovoid capsule. — Pax in Engler, 

 Jahresb. xviii. 30. A. purtgens, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 179 

 (not of Clem.) ; Wats. Bot. King Exp. 40. — Rocky Mts. from Wyo- 

 ming to S. British America, westward in mountainous regions to 

 Washington and 8. California. 



"Var. gracilis. Sepals narrow, elongated and still more attenuate, 

 2|-3 lines long : leaves less rigid, scarcely spreading or pungent. — 

 A. punyens, var. gracilis, Gray in herb. — California Mts. above Big 

 Tree Grove, Bolander, 4976; Long Meadow, Tulare Co., Palmer, 

 Coville fy Fanston. Intergrading with the typical form. 



****** Densely cespitose perennials with acicular or awl-shaped leaves: 

 sepals oblong, or linear-oblong, very obtuse. 



+- Alpine, boreal or arctic species. 

 *+ Petals oblong or narrowly obovate. 

 A. Sajanensis, Willd. Cespitose : stems finely but rather 

 densely glandular-hirsute, decumbent, very leafy below and with age 

 sheathed at the base with the dried persistent leaves ; the upper more 

 or less erect portion of the stems £-2 L inches in length, bearing two 

 or three pairs of short and rather distaut more or less puberulent 

 leaves, and terminating in 1 to 3 flowers ; lower leaves linear, obtusish, 

 rather rigid, erect, 2— 3J lines long, quite glabrous or ciliolate, less 

 commonly glandular-pubescent, straight : segments of the calyx linear- 

 oblong, 1-3-ribbed, glandular-pubescent, 2 lines in length : petals 

 spatulate, equalling or half exceeding the sepals, rarely nearly twice 

 as long (but narrower than in A. arcticd) : valves of the capsule 

 linear-oblong, obtuse, often considerably exceeding the calyx. — Willd. 

 in Schlecht. Berl. Mag. Natf. 1816, 200; DC. Prodr. i. 408. A. 

 thymifolia, James, Cat. 181. A. obtusa, Torr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. ii. 

 170. A. bi/lora, Wats. Bibl. Index, 94, not of Linn. A. arctica, and 

 vars. of various authors, not of Stev. Stellar ia bijlora, L. Spec. 422. 

 Alsine bijlora, Wahlenb. Fl. Lappon. 128; Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Ross, 

 i. 355. — Mt. Albert, Lower Can., Allen, Macoun, to Labrador and 

 Behring Strait, southward to Oregon, Cusick, and along the Rocky 

 Mountains to New Mexico, Parry, and Arizona, Letnmon. (Green- 

 land and Siberia.) A common species widely distributed in alpine 

 and arctic regions of the Old and New World. Its confluent varieties 

 and forms seem largely due to individual environment. The follow- 



