FRANKENIA FAMILY 119 



4. Elatine californica A. Gray. California Waterwort. Fig. 3242. 



Elatine californica A. Gray, Proc. Araer. Acad. 13: 364. 1878. 



Plants forming small mats or tufts, terrestrial or submerged, the stems 2-5 cm. long. Leaves 

 obovate to oblanceolate, 3-4 mm. long ; flowers minute, on short pedicels ; sepals and petals 4 ; 

 stamens 8 ; stigmas and ovary cells 4 ; seeds strongly curved, rounded on one end, truncate and 

 apiculate on the other, marked with 8-10 longitudinal lines, and 20-25 crossbars. 



Margins of ponds and pools. Arid Transition Zone; eastern Washington (Spokane County) south to the 

 mountains of southern California. Type locality: Sierra Valley, altitude 5,000 feet, Sierra Nevada, California. 

 May- Aug. 



2. BERGIA L. Mant. 1:152. 241. 1771. 



Herbs, or somewhat woody plants, with diffuse or ascending branches, more or less 

 pubescent. Leaves opposite, serrate or entire. Flowers small, in axillary clusters, 5-merous 

 or rarely 3-4-merous. Capsule crustaceous, ovoid, 5-valved. Seeds many, reticulately 

 sculptured with longitudinal lines and crossbars. [Name in honor of Dr. P. J. Bergius, 

 1723-90, professor of natural history in Stockholm.] 



About 15 species, chiefly in warm temperate and tropical regions. Type species, Bcrgia capensis L. 



1. Bergia texana (Hook.) Seub. Texas Bergia. Fig. 3243. 



Merimea texana Hook. Ic. PI. 3: pi. 278. 1840. 

 Bergia texana Seub. ex Walp. Rep. 1: 285. 1842. 



Plants scabrous and somewhat glandular, the stems diffusely branching from the base, 

 ascending, 1-3 dm. long, scabrous and slightly glandular. Leaves opposite, obovate or those at 

 the tips of the branches ovate, narrowed to a petiole, 5-20 mm. long, sharply serrate ; flowers 

 1 or 2 in the axils, short-pedicelled ; sepals acuminate, scarious-margined, 3-4 mm. long; petals 

 a little shorter. 



Moist ground, Sonoran Zones; Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys to Lake Elsinore, southern California, 

 east to Nevada, Texas, and Illinois. Type locality: Texas. June-Nov. 



Family 96. FRANKENIACEAE. 



Frankenia Family. 



Low perennial herbs or undershrubs. Leaves opposite, sessile and often united 

 at the membranous and somewhat sheathing base, entire, often revolute. Stipules 

 none. Flowers small, perfect, solitary, and sessile in the axils of the branches. Calyx 

 4-5-lobed, the tube tubular or prismatic, furrowed, the lobes short, valvate. Petals 

 4 or 5, borne on the edge of the calyx-tube, narrowed to a claw bearing an append- 

 age on its inner face. Stamens 4-7, or rarely more, borne on the edge of the calyx- 

 tube. Pistil of 2^ carpels united into a 1 -celled ovary with 2-4 parietal placentae. 

 Styles 2-4-cleft into filiform lobes. Fruit a capsule, invested by the persistent calyx. 

 Seeds few to many, on slender funiculi attached to the margin of the valves, the testa 

 crustaceous ; endosperm present, farinose. 



A family of 4 genera and about 65 species, warm temperate and tropical regions. 



1. FRANKENIA L. Sp. PI. 331. 1753. 



Characters of the family. [Name in honor of J. Franke (Frankenius), professor of 

 anatomy and botany, Upsala, seventeenth century-] 



A genus of about 60 species, natives of warm, temperate, and tropical regions of both hemispheres. Type 

 species, Frankenia laevis L. 



Styles 3-cleft; ovules numerous; herbs. 1- -F. grandifolia. 



Styles 2-cleft; ovules 2 or 3; shrubby plants. 2. F. Falmcri. 



1. Frankenia grandifolia Cham. & Sch. Alkali Heath or Yerba Reuma. 



Fig. 3244. 



Frankenia grandifolia Cham. & Sch. Linnaea 1 : 35. 1826. 

 Velezia latifolia Eschsch. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 10: 286. 1826. 

 Frankenia latifolia Presl ex Schultes f. Syst. Veg. 7: 1620. 1830. 



Stem much branched from a slightly woody base, erect or reclining, slender, 1-3 dm. high 

 pubescent to nearly glabrous. Leaves many, obovate to oblanceolate, plane or revolute, 6-12 

 mm. long, dull green; calyx-tube cylindric, 6 mm. long, strongly furrowed, the lobes short, 

 acute; petals spatulate, deep rose, exserted beyond the calyx-tube 2-4 mm., appendages of the 

 claws bifid; stamens 4-7; style 3-cleft; capsule shorter than the calyx, Imear, angled; seeds 

 numerous. 



Salt marshes, near the coast, Transition and Sonoran Zones; Marin County, California, to northern 

 Lower California and Guadalupe Island. Type locality: salt marshes, San Francisco, Caluornia. May-JNov. 



