282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



calyx only a line long. On river-banks, probably sand-washes, Brit. 

 Columbia to Oregon and adjacent Idaho. 



C. SPATHULATA, Dougl. Small, but comparatively large-flowered, 

 an inch to a span high, rarely taller, firm-fleshy and glaucous or pale : 

 radical leaves terete and thickish-filiform, or becoming somewhat spatu- 

 late and flattish ; cauline from lanceolate-ovate to narrowly lanceolate, 

 rarely connate into a round peltate or cupulate disk, yet often connate 

 on one side into an obcordate or 2-lobed body ; in the typical form 

 rather broad, only a quarter to half an inch long, and their broad bases 

 slightly connate : raceme usually loose ; the slender and mostly alter- 

 nate pedicels a quarter to half an inch long : petals bright rose-color or 

 white, thrice the length of the calyx : mature seeds conspicuously granu- 

 late. — Professor Greene, familiar with the living plant, first indicated 

 to me the distinctions between this species and the preceding : I have 

 settled the name and synonymy. The original C spathulata of Hook. 

 Fl. i. 225, t. 74, represents a common small form of it. C. gypsophi- 

 loides, Fisch. & Meyer, figured in Sert. Petrop. t. 35, and in Brit. Fl. 

 Gard. ser. 2, t. 375, is a taller form. The species is taken up in Bot. 

 Calif, ii. 435, as C. exigua. It occurs in open ground, especially where 

 saline, from British Columbia to S. California, and it passes by various 

 gradations into 



Var. TENUiFOLiA. This has even the cauline leaves narrowly lin- 

 ear, or when growing filiform, half-inch to two inches long, little or 

 not at all dilated at base, sometimes connate on one side ; and the 

 petals are commonly rose-color. It is 0. tenuifolia and C. exigua, 

 Torr. «fe Gray, Fl. i. 200, 201. In PI. Fendl. 14, a seemingly thinner- 

 leaved and taller form, of lax growth and somewhat dubious character, 

 is mentioned. Same range as the typical form, the two sometimes 

 growing together confluently. 



* * Alsinastrum, Torr. «& Gray, Fl. Habit and herbage, also the 

 inuriculate or tuberculate round-reniform seeds of Montia, but on 

 a larger scale : stems elongated and bearing few or several pairs of 

 opposite spatulate leaves, fibrous-rooting from lower nodes, and at 

 least in one species flagelliferous and perennial by bulblets on the 

 filiform runners: stamens 5. 



C. CnAMissONis, Esch. in Spreng. Syst. i. 790 (but in the form of 

 C. Chamissoi), & Cham, in Linn. vi. 502 (1831, the annexed note 

 about esculent tubers to be excluded) ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 676. 0. 

 stohnifera, C. A. Meyer, Act. Mosq. vii. 139, t. 3 (1829). G. fiagel- 

 laris, Bong. Veg. Sitch. 137? C aquatica^ Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. i. 201. 



