ELATINE.E. 113 



thousaud miles north aud south. Doubtless other characters than those 

 of the form of the sepals are to be found by which the two species may 

 be more satisfactorily distinguished. 



3. H. auag:alloi(les, Ch. & Schl. Linnfea, iii. 127 (1828). Diffusely 

 branching, very slender, prostrate or assurgent, stolouiferous, forming a 

 mat a foot or more in breadth : leaves oval or elliptical, 14^ — J^' in. long, 

 obtiise, clasping, only half as long as the internodes : inflorescence leafy^- 

 paniculate-cymose ; fl. scarcely 2 lines long, the obovate- or linear-oblong 

 sepals exceeding the petals : stamens 15 — 20, nearly or quite distinct. 

 Var. Nevadeiise. Erect from a merely decumbent and scarcely stolo- 

 uiferous base, only a few inches high : leaves equalling or exceeding the 

 internodes : cyme rather ample, strictly terminal, on a short naked 

 peduncle : fl. 3 lines long. -The type frequent in springy places along 

 the seaboard and among the coast hills, from Santa Cruz northward. 

 The variety, of pronoiincetUy different aspect and inflorescence, is 

 perhaps limited to the foot-hills of the Sierra. It may prove a species. 



Obder XVIII. E L A T I N E /E . 



Cambessides, in Memoires du Museum, xviii. 225 (1829). 

 Low annuals with opposite leaves, membranous stipules, and axillary 

 regular symmetrical 2 --5-merous flowers. Sepals, petals and stamens all 

 distinct, hypogynous. Styles distinct ; stigmas capitate ; ovary 2—5- 

 celled, becoming a 2— 5-celled capsule with central placenta and a 

 septicidal or septifragal dehiscence. Seeds straight or curved. 



1. ELATINE, Linnxus (Watbe-wort). Glabrous dwarf and rather 

 succulent plants of wet places, sometimes aquatic and floating. Flowers 

 axillary. Sepals 2—4, nerveless, obtuse, persistent. Petals 2—4. 

 Stamens as many or twice as many as the petals. Styles, or sessile 

 stigmas, 2- 4. Pod thin, globose, 2— 4-celled, several- or many-seeded. 

 Seeds cylindrical, straight or curved, striate-pitted. 



1. E. brachysperma, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xiii. 361 (1878). Commonly 

 terrestrial : leaves oblong or oval, attenuate at base, sometimes lanceolate, 

 14 in. long or less : fl. sessile, mostly dimerous ; stamens 2 or 3 : seed 

 oval, nearly straight, I4 line long, coarsely pitted in 6 or 7 lines of 10—12 

 pits. —Plains of the interior of the State, in very wet places ; also near 

 the coast southward. 



2. E. Californica, Gray, 1. c. Floating : leaves obovate, narrowed at 

 base, the lowest with petiole as long as the blade : fl. short-pedicellate ; 

 sepals and petals 3 or 4 each ; stamens twice as many : seeds circinate- 

 incurved, ^g line long, minutely pitted in 10—12 lines of about 25 pits.— 

 In Sierra Valley, Lemnion. 



2. BERGIA, Liiiiiieas. Coarser annuals, not succulent, pubescent. 



