138 PORTULACACEAE. 



Lewisia pygmaea (Gray) Robinson. Root fleshy, conical, simple; leaves 

 linear to lanceolate or spatulate, 2-3 cm. long, the petioles scarious-margined; 

 scapes 2-5 cm. high; sepals 4 mm. long, orbicular, erose-dentate at the summit, 

 the teeth glandular; petals 6-8, red, twice as long as the sepals; seeds 15-20. 



At high altitudes in the Cascade Mountains, rare. 



171. SPRAGUEA. 



Glabrous fleshy herbs with mostly radical leaves; flowers in 

 dense scorpioid spikes clustered in an umbel on a scape-like 

 peduncle; sepals 2, orbicular-cordate, persistent; petals 4; 

 stamens 3; style long, bifid at the apex; ovary 8-10-ovuled; 

 capsule membranaceous, 2-valved; seeds black and shining. 



Spraguea multiceps Howell. Perennial with a thick fleshy root; crown 

 simple or with several short branches, each bearing a rosulate tuft of leaves; 

 leaves thick, spatulate, 5-8 cm. long; peduncles spreading or nearly prostrate, 

 2-4 cm. long, usually with 1 or 2 scarious bracts; flowers rose-purple, in dense 

 heads; sepals scarious, about as long as the petals; stamens and styles longer 

 than the petals. 



Common in sandy or gravelly soil in the Cascade Mountains, at 2500-3000 

 m. altitude. Not known in the Olympic Mountains. 



172. CALANDRINIA. 



Low succulent herbs with alternate or radical leaves; flowers 

 purplish, in bracteate racemes or panicles or few on short scape- 

 like stems; sepals 2, green, persistent; petals mostly 5; stamens 

 5-15; style 3-cleft, short; ovary free, many-ovuled; capsule glo- 

 bose or ovoid, membranaceous, 3-valved; seeds black, usually 

 shining, smooth or minutely tuberculate. 



Calandrinia caulescens HBK. Glabrous, branched from the base, decum- 

 bent, 5-15 cm. high; leaves linear to oblanceolate, 2-6 cm. long; flowers in 

 racemes on erect or ascending peduncles; sepals ovate, acute, keeled; petals 

 3-5, obovate, rose-colored, 4-8 mm. long; capsule obovoid, acute; seeds lens- 

 shaped, minutely roughened. 



Washington to Mexico, rare in our limits. 



Calandrinia caulescens menziesii (Hook.) Gray. Flowers larger, the petals 

 8-12 mm. long. 



Moist places, not common. 



173. MONTIA. 



Low branching glabrous succulent annual herbs; leaves mostly 

 opposite; flowers small, white, nodding, axillary or racemose; 

 sepals 2, ovate, herbaceous, persistent; petals 5, unlike, two 

 larger and three smaller; stamens 3, alternate with the smaller 

 petals; style very short; stigmas 3. 



Montia fontana L. ( Claytonia hallii Gray.) Stems procumbent or ascend- 

 ing, rooting at the nodes, 3-10 cm. high or when aquatic often longer; leaves 

 spatulate or obovate, 4-14 mm. long; raceme terminal or axillary, few-flowered; 

 petals white, 2 mm. long, a little longer than the calyx. 



In wet places and running water. 



