24. Juncus Tracyi Rydb. 



Stem stout, 3-6 dm. high, compressed; blades 5-20 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide; 

 sheaths with a scarious margin which usually is produced into a very short auricle; 

 inflorescence of 5 to 9 heads, these about 1 cm. in diameter; sepals and petals 

 lanceolate, acute, light brown, 3-4 mm. long, slightly scarious-margined; capsule 

 oblong, mucronate, shorter than the perianth, imperfectly 3-celled. 



In wet meadows in Ariz. (Apache and Coconino cos.); Mont, and Ida. to Ariz, 

 and Nev. 



25. Juncus saximontanus A. Nels. Fig. 322. 



Culms basally shortly decumbent and/or subrhizomatous but tuber-bearing 

 enlargements absent; flowering culms mostly in loose clumps, erect, 25-45 cm. 

 long, compressed, 1-2 mm. thick near the middle; blades membranous, weakly 

 septate (the septae often incomplete and not tangible in well-pressed specimens), 

 laterally flattened, gladiate, tapering to a point; panicle terminal, 4-7 cm. long, 

 sparsely branched, either of 6 to twenty 6- to 19-flowered turbinate glomerules (f. 

 brunnescens (Rydb.) Herm.) or else the glomerules congested into fewer (2 to 5) 

 pleianthous (20- to 40-flowered) nearly round heads (typical form); bracteole 

 solitary at the base of the pedicel; sepals 3-4 mm. long, lanceolate, acute, stra- 

 mineous or usually brown to chestnut-color, chafl'y; petals similar to sepals but 

 shorter; anthers 6, much shorter than the filaments; capsules oblong, mucronate, 

 a little shorter than the sepals, usually chestnut-brown at maturity. /. parous Rydb., 

 /. brunnescens Rydb. 



Along creeks in water and wet meadows, in the Tex. Trans-Pecos mts. (Chisos 

 and Davis), N.M. (Taos, San Miguel, Catron, Otero, Colfax, Union, Grant, San- 

 doval and Rio Arriba cos.) and Ariz. (Coconino. Yavapai, Greenlee, Graham, 

 Chochise and Pima cos.), infrequent; B.C., s. to Dgo. and e. to Colo., N.M., Tex. 

 and Coah. 



26. Juncus brevicaudatus (Engelm.) Fern. 



Stems slender, densely cespitose, 1-5 dm. tall; leaves erect, 1-2 mm. in diame- 

 ter; inflorescence strict, 3 to 6 times as long as wide, 3-12 cm. long, with few to 

 many erect or ascending branches and few to many heads, each with 2 to 7 

 flowers; perianth-segments lance-subulate. 3-nerved, the sepals 2.3-2.9 mm. long, 

 the petals 2.6-3.2 mm. long; capsule prismatic. 3.5-4.8 mm. long, abruptly taper- 

 ing into a very short beak or merely acute; seeds fusiform, 0.9-1.2 mm. long, the 

 body occupying about three fifths of the total length. 



Marshes, wet meadows and shores, in Ariz. (Coconino Co.); Que. and N.S, to 

 w. Ont. and Minn., s. to Mass. and N.Y., in the mts. to W. Va. and Ariz. 



27. Juncus trigonocarpus Steud. Fig. 323. 



Perennial; culms erect or ascending, simple, tough, wiry, terete, 5-9 dm. long, 

 2-2.5 mm. thick, basally often trailing and rooting in the mire; leaves few, remote, 

 subappressed; blades terete, wiry, nodulose. 7-20 cm. long, about 2 mm. thick; 

 panicle terminal, compound-branched, 5-15 cm. long, about a fourth to a third as 

 broad; primary branches of panicle erect, 1-9 cm. long, bearing nodes with short 

 bracts and fascicles of short branches each of which bears a hemispheric or tur- 

 binate 6- to 15-flowered glomerule; bracteole solitary at the base of each pedicel; 

 sepals and petals about 3 mm. long, lanceolate, rigidly subspinescent, strongly 

 nerved, mostly green or stramineous with a chestnut-brown tip; stamens 3 or said 

 to be sometimes 6; capsule 3.5-5 mm. long, exserted, narrow, tapered at both ends, 

 acuminate apically. shining chestnut-brown, eventually completely dehiscent (even 

 the tip); seeds with brown bodies 0.6-0.7 mm. long and white to stramineous 

 "tails" on either end, the tail on the upper end slender and 0.5-0.6 mm. long, 



628 



