A family of 130 or more genera and about 1200 species, mainly of the 

 Southern Hemisphere and tropical regions. 



1. Leaves whorled; capsule dehiscent by valves (2) 



1. Leaves opposite, commonly unequal; capsule circumscissile (3) 



2(1). Plants glabrous; flowers with a filiform pedicel; sepals distinct to base; 

 seeds without a strophiole I. Mollugo 



2. Plants tomentulose; flowers essentially sessile; calyx cleft only to middle; 



seeds with a strophiole 2. Glinus 



3(1). Stipules present; ovary 1- or 2-celled; seeds several 3. Trianthema 



3. Stipules none; ovary 3- to 5-celled; seeds numerous 4. Sesuvium 



1. Mollugo L. Carpet-weed 

 About 20 species, mostly natives of tropical and subtropical regions. 



1. Mollugo verticillata L. Indian chickw^eed. Fig. 430. 



Annual herb, glabrous throughout; stems dichotomously branched, prostrate or 

 ascending, to 2 dm. long; leaves verticillate, 3 to 6 in a whorl, spatulate to 

 narrowly oblanceolate or sometimes linear, obtuse at apex, narrowed to a short 

 petiole, to 3 cm. long and 1 cm. wide; flowers 2 to 5 from each node, with 

 filiform pedicels to 14 mm. long; sepals oblong or elliptic, to 2.5 mm. long 

 and 1 mm. broad; stamens usually 3; capsule ovoid to ellipsoid, slightly exceeding 

 the sepals; seeds minute, reniform, dark-reddish-brown, smooth and shining, 

 ridged along the back and sides or rarely without ridges. 



In waste places and cult, grounds, open sandy woods and brushlands, lake 

 margins and lowlands, and on dunes throughout Okla., N.M., Ariz, and Tex., year 

 around; throughout temp, and trop. Am. 



2. Glinus L. 



Annuals with the general habit of Mollugo, pubescent or glabrous; leaves verti- 

 cillate, unequal, entire; flowers in dense glomerules in the leaf axils of upper 

 nodes, on short peduncles; calyx free from the ovary, the 5 sepals distinct; petals 

 none; stamens 3 to 10 or rarely more; ovary superior; fruit a loculicidal 3-valved 

 capsule; seeds numerous, minute, smooth or tuberculate, with a distinct strophiole, 

 the funiculus large, coiled about the seed. 



A genus of 12 species, widely distributed in tropical and warm temperate 

 regions. 



1. Seeds blackish-brown, tuberculate 1. G. lotoides. 



1. Seeds reddish or light-brown, smooth or sometimes pebbly 2. G. radiatus. 



1. Glinus lotoides L. Fig. 431. 



Plants cinereous-tomentose with branched hairs; stems diffusely branched from 

 the base, prostrate or ascending, to about 35 cm. long; leaves pseudoverticillate, 

 narrowly to broadly obovate, rounded or abruptly acute at the apex, narrowed 

 below to a slender petiole of about equal length, to 25 mm. long and 15 mm. 

 broad; flowers stoutly pedicellate or essentially sessile, in axillary glomerules; 

 sepals lanceolate, stellate-tomentose, to 7 mm. long and 3 mm. broad; stamens 5 

 to 10, rarely more; capsule ellipsoid, to 4.5 mm. long; seeds black, tuberculate. 



Waste places, locally established on moist flats and along marsh and lake 

 margins, in s.e. Okla. {Waterfall) and e.-cen. Tex.; an Old World species that 

 has become introd. in various parts of N.A. 



2. Glinus radiatus (R. & P.) Rohrb. Fig. 430. 



Annual herb with stellate-tomentose foliage; stems to 5 dm. long; leaves with 

 slender petioles to 6 mm. long, elliptic to obovate or broadly spatulate, rounded 



872 



