— 109 — 



erect, 3 to 10 inches high, y 2 to 1 line in diameter, 6 to 12 angled, 

 weak and herbaceous or becoming firmer the second year, usually 

 bearing a single branch 1 to 2 inches long at each node. Walls of 

 the stem thicker than in hiemale ; ridges with long cross-bands; 

 grooves naked, except for small spots of silex on the cells ; 

 sheaths elonsrated and very wide-spreading, with a narrow black 

 band at tip, otherwise green or (in dried specimens at least) all 

 suffused with black ; leaves 3-angled or flat in the middle above, 

 rarely bearing a central groove; teeth fuscous, flexuous, decidu- 

 ous, leaving a hard, horny, centrally grooved erect or incurved, 

 usually shining, borderless leaf base l / 2 its height ; spikes nar- 

 rowly elliptical, rounded, not apiculate. Coville & Funston, 1297, 

 Death Valley Exp., banks of Kaweah river at Three Rivers, 

 Tulare Co., Calif., July 26, 1891 (Nat. Herb., 25, 101), as 

 varicgatum. Three little plants, 3 inches high, well fruited 

 (Cont. Nat. Mus. IV, 226). C. & F., 1042, 1 mile south of Kern- 

 ville, Kern Co., Calif., on north fork of Kern river, Alt., 750 

 meters, June 23, 1901, as varicgatum (Nat. Herb., 25100). 



In some of its characters, such as sheaths and persistent, in- 

 curved leaf-bases, this plant resembles Funstoni, but the section 

 is similar to hiemale. An abundance of material might show this 

 to be a good species. The only thing I have seen that approaches 

 it in texture is B. Sieboldi Milde frOm Japan, which is even more 

 grass-like. 



4. Pumilum var. nov. Cespitose ; stems in a dense cluster, 

 6 to 15 inches tall, 8 to 16 angled, y 2 to 1 line in diameter, mostly 

 geniculate at the lower nodes, nearly all the joints tumid, the 

 lower gibbous ; ridges with cross-bands of silex, grooves naked ; 

 sheaths tight, often symmetrical through the tumidity of the 

 node, narrowest in the middle except where nodes are normal, 

 bearing a broad black band below and a narrower black limb, 

 the two separated by a pinkish or dirty white band which is 

 often suffused with black or even entirely black towards the 

 top of the stem, fading to dirty ashy the second year, ultimately 

 splitting, recurving and falling off in patches ; leaves linear, 

 erect, prominently 3-angled, the central one sometimes grooved 

 on the smallest stems and branches; teeth persistent, dark 



