CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 277 



Var. apus. Scapes only a line or two long : fruiting heads 

 shorter than the leaves, crowded and divergent; carpels as in 

 the type. 



Var. filifoemis. Scape 1 — 6 inches high, filiform, and 

 not at all or very slightly thickened above: fruiting heads 

 ^ — 2 inches long, not tapering, but very slender, of equal 

 thickness from base to apex : carpels in few series, scarcely 

 imbricated, minute, with a delicate costa, ending in a short, 

 recurved beak. 



Of the typical state of this species, the only Californian 

 specimens in the herbarium of the Academy were collected 

 by Dr. Kellogg, twenty years ago, on one of the islands in 

 San Francisco Bay. They are exactly like very excel- 

 lent ones from the north of France. Our largest specimens 

 were obtained by the present writer, on the northern bor- 

 der of the State, in 1876. The scapes in these are un- 

 commonly tall, and the heads shorter and more abruptly 

 tapering than in the type. We have plants from Arizona, 

 by Dr. Rushy, which must be referred here, notwith- 

 standing that the carpels are too prominently beaked, so 

 much so as to weaken the validity of 31. aristatus. The var. 

 apus is from the table-lands back of San Diego, where it 

 was collected by Mr. Orcutt, April 10, 1884. Of the var. 

 Jiliformis, the extreme state, with long filiform heads, found 

 by the writer on Guadalupe Island, looks like a very good 

 species; but in some specimens of Mr. Orcutt's gathering at 

 San Diego, the head is thicker, somewhat tapering, and the 

 carpels crowded, thus approaching the more typical forms 

 of the species. A reduced state, usually not more than an 

 inch high, was found in the Masonic Cemetery at San Fran- 

 cisco, in 1866, and was also brought from near Antioch, on 

 the other side of Mt. Diablo, in 1884. 



M. aristatus, Geyer.* Back of carpel not depressed or 

 flattened, rising gradually into a subulate, spreading beak. 



^Although this species is commonly credited to Mr. Beutliam, he himself 

 (Fl. Aust., i. 8.) declares Geyer to be the aiithor of it. 



