ROBINSON. — ALSINEjE. 307 



erect, 2-5 inches high, subsiinple : the filiform straight peduncles 

 exceeding the narrowly linear very acute leaves : flowers normally 

 5-parted : calyx appressed even in fruit, obtusish but not rounded at the 

 base, § the length of the capsule valves : petals scarcely equalling the 

 sepals: stamens 10. — Fl. i. 177. S. procumbens, Pursh. Fl. 119. 

 S. Elliottii, Fenzl ex Gray, Man. ed. 2, 61. aS. subulata, Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. i. 178, not of Wimm. ? S/jergula nodosa, Walt. Car. 142. 

 S. saginoides, Michx. Fl. i. 276, not of Linn. S. decumbeus, Ell. 

 Sk. i. 523. S. subidata, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 93. — New England to 

 Great Plains of British America (3Iacoun), southward to Florida and 

 Texas ; on dry, sandy ground. 



Var. Smithii, Wats. More slender : flowers apetalous, at least 

 all the later ones. — Bibl. Index, 105; Wats. & Coulter- in Gray, 

 Man. ed. 6, 89. S. subulata, var. Smithii, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 95. 

 Unsatisfactorily distinguished from S. apetala by its 5-parted flowers. 



S. occidentalis, Wats. Annual, glabrous, with habit and foliage 

 of the preceding species but with longer pedicels (usually 7-10 or 12 

 lines) and larger also 5-parted flowers: capsule 1£ lines in length: 

 calyx rounded at the base. — Proc. Am. Acad. x. 344. S. procum- 

 bens, Boland. Cat. 6 ; Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp. 242 ? & Linncei, 

 Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 378. Alsinella occidentalis, Greene, Fl. 

 Francis. 125. — Vancouver's Island to Southern California, low 

 grounds and salt marshes of the coast. The western equivalent of 

 S. decumbens, possibly intergrading with that species. 



S. procumbens, L. Matted : the numerous procumbent leafy 

 stems l|-4 inches in length: leaves smooth or ciliate, narrowly linear, 

 obtusish aud mucronate: pedicels filiform elongated, nodding at the 

 summit during anthesis : flowers normally 4-parted: petals considera- 

 bly shorter than the sepals ; the latter spreading in fruit. — Spec. 128 ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 177. — Moist rocks, also in paths, etc., Nova 

 Scotia to Pennsylvania, also rarely inland as far as Michigan, Hill; 

 flowering through the summer. (Eu., Asia, S. Amer.) Apetalous 

 forms have been noted in the Old World. 



* * Stems very short, \- 2 inches long; flowers rather small, 5-parted, terminal: 

 leaves thickish, narrowly linear to subulate, not proliferous in the upper 

 axils but almost always forming lateral sterile rosettes about the base. 



S. Linnaei, Prf.sl. Matted, 1-3 inches high : stems slender, de- 

 cumbent, rooting and often producing lateral rosettes : radical leaves 

 narrowly linear, acutely mucronate, 3-7 lines long, forming dense and 

 mostly persistent rosettes ; cauline leaves short, few : pedicels long, 

 filiform, commonly recurved at the summit: flowers moderately large 



