EXGELMANN — NORTH AM. SPECIES OF JUNCUS. 483 



2£ diameters; about 8 ribs are visible on tbe side; the net- 

 work of the surface and the cross-lines of the arete are very 

 delicate but quite distinct. 



Var. a is often 4 feet high, with a stem 3 lines wide, and 

 leaves 3 or 4 or sometimes even 6 lines broad ; panicle 4-8 

 inches long; heads in some forms, and also in the original 

 Haenkean specimen, few-flowered, in others many-flowered ; 

 seeds usually slender and almost fusiform. Var. 0, similar to 

 the last, with leaves 2-3 lines wide, is distinguished by its 

 showy, glistening, golden-straw-colored panicles, about 4 

 inches in length; sepals almost nerveless; capsules larger 

 than in the other forms and longer than the sepals, thus 

 approaching the following species. Var. y, the mountain 

 and eastern form of the species, is smaller, with fewer heads, 

 either few-flowered and in a small panicle (about H or 2 

 inches long), or many-flowered, 3-4 lines in diameter and 

 1-5 or 8 incumber; leaves usually h to 1$ lines wide. Var. 

 6 may be considered a large flowered north-western form 

 of the latter; flowers 1| lines or more in length ; seeds 0.25- 

 0.26 line long, thicker than in the other forms and with short 

 and abrupt points. Var. f, with its very flat and somewhat 

 curved, sword-shaped leaves, and, usually, few large dark-col- 

 ored heads of triandrous flowers, looks quite peculiar, but 

 flower, fruit and seed are the same as in the other forms. I 

 find plants of the same habit and with the same kind of leaves 

 and heads among thej different forms of J. JSIertensianus and 

 of J. phceocephcdus, but the fruit and flowers will always dis- 

 tinguish them. The seeds in this variety are intermediate 

 between those of the last and those of the other forms. — 

 Meyer (Linn. 3, 373) describes J. ensifolius with an obovate 

 obtuse capsule ; I do not find it so, but suppose he had a spe- 

 cimen of J". JSIertensianus in view, for which this shape of the 

 capsule is quite characteristic. 



49. J. oxymeris, n. sp. : caulibus (2-3-pedalibus) e rhizo- 

 mate repente erectis seu ascendentibus compressis -, foliis a 

 latere compressis plus minus distincte nodosis ; panicula su- 

 pradecomposita patula seu stricta; capitulis pauci-(5-10)floris 

 pallidis; floribus pedicellatis; sepalis lineari-lanceolatis acu- 

 minato-aristatis, interioribus same paulo longioribus stamina 

 6 quarta parte superantibus capsula lanceolata rostrata unilo- 

 culari plerumque brevioribus ; antheris longo-linearibus fila- 

 mento duplo longioribus ; stigmatibus ovarium lanceolatum 

 apiee attenuatum cum stylo ei ajquilongo aequantibus exsertis ; 

 seminibus ovato-oblanceolatis apiculatis areis laevibus reticu- 

 laris. — J. acutiflorus, floribus solito longioribus, Benth. PI. 

 Hartw. 341. 



Sacramento Valley, Gal., liar tic eg, 2017, San Francisco 

 and Mariposa, Cal., Bolander, Hb. n. 95. 



