OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 303 



Louis Acad. 2. 438. J. acutus, var. sphcerocarpus, Engelm. in 

 Wheeler's Rep. 6. 376. Southern California, frequent in marshes in 

 the Coast Ranges from San Francisco to San Diego. J. acutus of the 

 Old World has a shorter and more spreading panicle, shorter spathes 

 and bracts, a more triangular and more acute capsule, and usually 

 more distinctly caudate seeds : the sheaths at the base are also more 

 abruptly contracted. The tough scapes of the present species are split 

 by the Indians and used in binding together the material of their baskets. 



Juncus (Articulati) Nevadensis. Scape very slender from a 

 slender horizontal rootstock, somewhat compressed, £ to 2 feet high : 

 leaves very narrow (rarely a line wide), sub terete ; ligules present: 

 spathe short and very narrow : heads small, few to rather many in a 

 short open panicle, frequently solitary : perianth-segments brownish, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, 2 lines long : stamens 6 ; anthers longer than 

 the filaments : stigmas long-exserted : capsule oblong, abruptly con- 

 tracted into the stout style, which nearly equals the perianth : seeds 

 minute, oblong, apiculate at each end. — J. phceocepkalus, var. gracilis, 

 Engelm. Proc. St. Louis Acad. 2. 473. Frequent in the Sierra 

 Nevada, from Kern County (Rothrock) to Oregon. Resembling 

 J. articulatus in habit, but much more slender ; distinguished from 

 J. phceocepkalus by its slender habit, subterete scape and leaves, 

 ligules, smaller heads, more abruptly acute capsule, and much smaller 

 and narrower seeds. 



Phyllospadix Torreyi. Stem and leaves much elongated, 

 scarcely a line wide, the latter flat, faintly 1-nerved, with sheaths 

 2 to 10 inches long: spathes 2 to 6, near the summit of an elongated 

 peduncle, the dilated portion 1£ or 2 inches long, foliaceous above: 

 spadix enclosed, 1^ lines wide, with 15 to 20 ovate-oblong acute 

 appendages within the margin and above the attachment of the corre- 

 sponding ovaries, 2 \ to 3 lines long: ovaries cordate-sagittate, some- 

 what flattened dorsally and carinate, 2^ lines long ; stigmas half as 

 long : fruit unknown. — Collected by Dr. Torrey at Santa Barbara, 

 in flower. It is apparently the same that is described and figured by 

 Ruprecht under the name of P. Scouleri (Mem. Acad. Petersb. 7. 58, 

 t. 1 and 2, f. 5-16), from the mouth of Russian River, though repre- 

 sented with short peduncles, a single spathe and broader leaves. 

 P. Scouleri, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 2. 171, t. 186, may be distinguished 

 by its ovate-oblong ovaries, rounded at base ; its mature fruit is also 

 unknown. 



