804 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
leaves subulate-acerose, rigid, pungent, tending to be squarrosely 
spreading, connate, 3-4 lines long: flowers usually numerous in 
spreading cymes, rarely subsolitary: sepals attenuate, acuminate, 
often purplish, not strongly nerved, 2-2} lines long, exceeding the 
more or less pointed petals and ovoid capsule. — Pax in Engler, 
Jahresb. xviii. 30. A. pungens, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 179 
(not of Clem.); Wats. Bot. King Exp. 40.— Rocky Mts. from Wyo- 
ming to S. British America, westward in mountainous regions to 
Washington and S. California. 
Var. gracilis. Sepals narrow, elongated and still more attenuate, 
24-3 lines long: leaves less rigid, scarcely spreading or pungent. — 
A. pungens, var. gracilis, Gray in herb. — California Mts. above Big 
Tree Grove, Bolander, 4976; Long Meadow, Tulare Co., Palmer, 
Coville §& Funston. Intergrading with the typical form. 
* * * * * * Densely cespitose perennials with acicular or awl-shaped leaves: 
sepals oblong, or linear-oblong, very obtuse. 
+ Alpine, boreal or arctic species. 
++ Petals oblong or narrowly obovate. 
A. Sajanensis, Witip. Cespitose: stems finely but rather 
densely glandular-hirsute, decumbent, very leafy below and with age 
sheathed at the base with the dried persistent leaves ; the upper more, 
or less erect portion of the stems }—2} inches in length, bearing two 
or three pairs of short and rather distant more or less puberulent 
~ leaves, and terminating in 1 to 3 flowers; lower leaves linear, obtusish, 
rather rigid, erect, 2-34 lines long, quite glabrous or ciliolate, less 
commonly glandular-pubescent, straight : segments of the calyx linear 
oblong, 1-3-ribbed, glandular-pubescent, 2 lines in length: petals 
spatulate, equalling or half exceeding the sepals, rarely nearly twice 
as long (but narrower than in A. arctica): valves of the capsule 
linear-oblong, obtuse, often considerably exceeding the calyx. — Willd. 
in Schlecht. Berl. Mag. Natf. 1816, 200; DC. Prodr. i. 408. 4 
thymifolia, James, Cat. 181. A. obtusa, Torr. Ann. N. Y. Lye ™ 
170. A. biflora, Wats. Bibl. Index, 94, not of Linn. A. aretica, and 
vars. of various authors, not of Stev. Stellaria biflora, L. Spec. 422. 
Alsine biflora, Wahlenb. FI. Lappon. 128; Fenzl in Ledeb. FI. Ross- 
i. 355.— Mt. Albert, Lower Can., Allen, Macoun, to Labrador and 
Behring Strait, southward to Oregon, Cusick, and along the Rocky 
Mountains to New Mexico, Parry, and Arizona, Lemmon. (Green- 
land and Siberia.) A common species widely distributed in alpine 
and arctic regions of the Old and New World. Its confluent varieti® 
and forms seem largely due to individual environment. The follow- 
