130 illecebkej:- 



closely connecting this order with Polygonese, tlirougli Laslarriiea, and 

 with Amarantacese through Amaranlus, 



1. L. sqnarrosa, Niitt. in T. & G. Fl. i. 174 (1838) ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii, 

 24. t. 106 ; Brandg. in Zoe, i. 219. The numerous prostrate or erect- 

 spreading branches 2 — 6 in. long ; herbage glandular-pubescent : leaves 

 and sepals subulate-setaceous, rigid and recurved, the leaves 2 — 3 lines 

 long, the sepals somewhat shorter : capsule elongated, triquetrous, at 

 length exserted, qo -seeded. — Plains of the lower San Joaquin, near 

 Lathrop, Greene; also in the Sacramento valley, according to Brandegee; 

 more plentiful farther south. 



2. L. pnsilla, Curran, Bull. Calif. Acad. i. 152 (1885) ; Brandg. 1. c. 

 22U. Habit of the preceding, but smaller ; stems 2—3 in. long : sepals 

 narrowly lanceolate, abriiptly acute, neither pungent nor recurved : 

 stamens 5 : style : capsule triquetrous, not exserted, go -seeded. — Moun- 

 tains near Tehachapi, Kern Co., Mrs. Curran. 



Ordeb XXI. ILLECEBRE/E. 



Robert Brown, Prodromus Florje Novae Hollaudife, 413 (1810). 

 Diffuse or tufted herbs or suffrutescent plants with mostly opposite 

 entire stipulate leaves, and clustered or open-cymose apetalous flowers. 

 Sepals 5, 4 or 3, seldom distinct. Stamens as many as the calyx-lobes 

 and opposite them, or fewer, perigynous (except in n. 1). Ovary superior, 

 1 -3-celled, 1 — several-ovuled ; styles 2 or 3, often united below. Fruit 

 1-seeded and utriclar, or a several-seeded capsule. 



1. MOLLUGO, lAriiiPcus (Carpet-weed). Low much branched annuals 

 with exstipulate whorled leaves, and axillary flowers on slender pedicels. 

 Sepals 5, white within, thus resembling petals when expanded. Stamens 

 5, hypogynous, alternate with the sepals, or 3 and alternate with the cells 

 of the ovary. Stigmas 3. Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved, loculicidal, the 

 partitions breaking away from the many -seeded axis. 



1. M. VERTiciLLATA, Liuu. Sp. PI. i. 89 (1753). Prostrate, much 

 branched, forming a mat 1 — 2 ft. broad ; branches rather slender, the 

 glabrous liuear-spatulate leaves 3—8 in an imperfect whorl, unequal, the 

 largest less than 1 in. long, scarcely equalling the internodes : pedicels 

 about as many as the leaves, 1 — 2 lines long : capsule oblong, obtuse, 

 little exserted from the calyx : seeds minute, round-renif orm, black and 

 shining, somewhat striate. — By waysides in the upper part of the Sacra- 

 mento valley; not common in California, and doubtless introduced; 

 native of Africa and perhaps of tropical America. 



2. PARONYCHIA, Clusius. Herbs with opposite entire leaves and a 

 pair of scarious stipules at each node; flowers (in ours) clustered in the 



