24 Sierra Club Publications. 



Sagina Linnaei Presl. Densely matted from fibrous roots. 

 Stems 1-2 in. high, leafy and floriferous, thread-like and weak. 

 Leaves linear, mucronate, less than % in. long, smooth. Flow- 

 ers very small, nodding from the top of slender peduncles. 

 Sepals elliptical, with narrow, white, membranous margins. 

 Petals white, much shorter. Capsules splitting into 5 parts, 

 almost twice as long as the calyx. East Lake. 



SANTALACE/E. Sandai^wood Famii,y. 



Comandra pallida A. DC. Smooth, perennial, low, branch- 

 ing herbs with several stems from a woody base. Leaves alter- 

 nate, oblong, pale green, an inch or less long. Flowers perfect 

 in axillary or terminal umbel-like cymes without bracts. Calyx 

 bell-shaped, thick in texture, greenish, pink or purplish. Anthers 

 2-celled, with a tuft of hairs where the filaments are inserted. 

 Fruit globose, crowned by the persistent calyx like a rose hip, 

 the size of a small pea. Millwood and in other places. 



PORTULACACE/E. Portulaca Family. 



Montia perfoliata Howell. Miners' Lettuce. Root leaves 

 on long petioles, stem leaves forming a round perfoliate leaf be- 

 low the flowering stems. Flowers small, white, often growing on 

 but one side of the stem. There is a great diflference in the plants 

 that grow in the shade and those that grow in the sun ; the former 

 are green and large, the latter are red and low, with all the parts 

 smaller. Millwood, Bubbs Creek. 



Montia Chamissonis Greene. Stems erect or procumbent, 

 propagating by runners that have a round bulblet at tip. Leaves 

 oblong-spatulate in several pairs. Flowers in racemes, having 

 bracts only with the lower flowers ; pedicels recurving in fruit. 

 Petals rose-color, longer than the calyx. This is always found in 

 wet places. Summit Meadow. 



Spraguea umbellata Torr. Pussy-Paws. Stems several, 

 usually from a thick root. Root leaves oblanceolate or spatu- 

 late, forming a rosette at the base, stem leaves becoming mere 

 bracts. Flowers pink, densely clustered in umbellate spikes curl- 

 ing in at the tips. Sepals thin and papery, petals 4, stamens 3, 

 style 2-lobed at apex, pod with 2 valves. This is common from 

 Millwood to Harrisons Pass. The plants at the upper altitudes 

 are much smaller in every way and more compact than those 

 lower down. 



