GILIA FAMILY 137 



Geog. note. — In its typical form Polemonium confertum of the Rocky Mountains region is 

 distributed from Wyoming to Utah and New Mexico. From it liave been segregated Polemonium 

 eximium Greene and P. chartaceum Mason, both Californian plants. It does not seem that either 

 of these segregates has characters of sufScient weight to warrant more than varietal rank, especially 

 in view of the fact that the species, Polemonium confertum, is so variable in those features that 

 are used as distinguishing marks for the segregates. Length of stamens, quite variable in the 

 species, reaches two extremes in P. chartaceum with exserted and in P. eximium with included 

 ones. Even this character is variable, since material from Jit. Lyell and Mt. Dana (^Lemmon) , 

 definitely referable to P. eximium, has stamens shortly exserted. Therefore, these two segregates 

 are disposed in this text in varietal rank. — W. L. Jepson and Virginia Bailey. 



The following stations validate the range of var. eximium : Mt. Dana, Jepson 3295a ; Mt. 

 Lyell, Jepson; Palisade basin, e. Fresno Co., E. Ferguson 515; near Simpson Mdw., Middle Fork 

 Kings River, Henrietta M. Eliot; Kearsarge Pass, Jepson 857; Harrison Pass, Jepson 5038; Mt. 

 Whitney, K. D. Jones. 



Var. chartaceum (Mason) Jepson comb. n. Habit and leaves as in var. eximium ; calyx turbi- 

 nate, shorter than corolla-tube; corolla sky blue, funnelform, 5 to 7% lines long, the tube nearly 

 twice as long as the lobes; stamens exserted; style equaling or much exceeding the corolla. — High 

 rocky slopes, 6000 to 14,200 feet: White Mts. (Inyo and Mono Cos.) ; Trinity Mts. July- Aug. 



Geog. note. — Polemonium confertum var. chartaceum grows on the highest peaks of the White 

 and Sweetwater mountains, desert ranges on the western margins of the Great Basin. On White 

 Mountain Peak, where it was discovered in 1917, it occurs from 13,500 feet to the summit, 14,242 

 feet. In the Sweetwater Mountains it has been found on Patterson Peak (Hoover 5548). In 1934 

 it was collected on Mt. Eddy (Dobkins Lake, D. H. Johnson) at the north end of the Trinity Mts. 

 This station is not necessarOy out of harmony with the stations in the White and Sweetwater 

 mountains, since a certain number of species of the west side of tlie Great Basin enter the northern 

 portion of the high inner North Coast Range, a distribution which in its westernmost extension 

 represents a thin or narrow geographic thrust. Polemonium confertum var. chartaceum matches 

 P. confertum var. eximium in habit, aspect, leaves and inflorescence and differs only as to details 

 of the flower. The broad sheathing chartaceous bases of the leaves are characteristic of all our 

 species, but especially evident in those which are alpine in growth-form. Aside from all this, the 

 leaves, as a matter of analogy, may advantageously be compared with the leaves of Potentilla 

 argyrocoma, P. santolinoides, P. muirii and P. hispidula, and some other alpine and subalpine 

 species. 



Refs. — Polemonium confertum Gray, Proc. Acad. Phila. 15:73 (1863), type from the Rocky 

 Mts. of Colo., Hall 4' Harbour 450. Var. eximium Jepson, Man. 783 (1925). P. eximium Greene, 

 Pitt. 3:305 (1898), type loc. Mt. Conness, Tuolunme Co., Harford. P. confertum B. & W., Bot. 

 Cal. 1:500 (187G) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. ed. 2, 328 (1911). Var. chartaceum Jepson. Polemo- 

 nium chartaceum Mason; Jepson, Man. 783 (1925), type loc. White Mountain Peak, Jepson 7383. 



2. PHLOX L. 



Low perennial herbs, or sometimes a little woody at base. Leaves mostly oppo- 

 site, their blades entire, sessile. Flowers in cymes, blue to lavender, pink, red or 

 white. Caljrs narrow, hyaline between the lobes. Corolla strictly salverform, the 

 lobes entire or bifid, the tube slender, the throat constricted. Stamens very short, 

 mostly included, unequally inserted in the corolla-tube (often in pairs, 2 upper, 

 2 median and the odd one below) . Ovules 1 or few in each cell of the ovary. Cap- 

 sule finally rupturing: the persistent calyx. Seed-coats not changed when wetted. — 

 Species about 30 in North America, 1 in Siberia. (Greek phlox, flame, the ancient 

 name for Lychnis, transferred by Linneaus to these plants.) 



Bibliog. — Nelson, E., Revision of the western North American Phloxes (Ann. Rep. Wyo. Agr. 

 Coll. 9: Phloxes 1-36, — 1899). Nelson, A., Phlox longifolia and P. stansburyi and their imme- 

 diate relatives (Am. Jour. Bot. 18:441-442, — 1931). Wherry, E. T., Four southwestern subspecies 

 of Phlox (Jour. Wash. Acad. 29:517,-1939). 



Leaves ovate or elliptic; North Coast Ranges 1. P. adsurgens. 



Leaves narrowly linear to liuear-lauceolate. 

 Corolla-tube 1 to 2 times as long as calyx. 



Corolla-lobes markedly notched at apex; style shorter than calyx; plants tall, diffuse; 



chiefly cismontane Sierra Nevada and North Coast Ranges 2. P. spcciosa. 



Corolla-lobes entire or merely retuse. 



Stems forming a rough mat or cushion ; leaves linear or somewhat needle-like, much 



fascicled in the axils; style shorter than the calyx; high montane 



3. P. douglasii. 



Stems erect, either few and slender or many and tufted; leaves narrowly lanceolate 



to linear, not fascicled in the axils or only rarely; style longer than calyx 



(except one var.); transmontane deserts i. P. stansburyi. 



Corolla-tube 3 to 4 times as long as calyx; transmontane or essentially so 5. P. dolichantha. 



