180 PORTULACEiE. 



}'.2 line long, black aud shining, the polished low tnberculation appearing 

 under a lens as a kind of reticulation. — Common on ledges of rock and 

 gravelly summits of low hills along the seaboard. Douglas' type, 

 figured in Hooker's Flora, is not with us, but is a northern plant with 

 short involucral leaves connate on both sides. If ours should be specific- 

 ally distinct, its name will be C. exigua. Most unlike C. gypsophiluides, 

 this is a very inconspicuous and homely plant, usually appearing in the 

 shape of a compact hemispherical tuft of glaucous succulent foliage, the 

 small flowers seldom rising above the leafy mass, the involucral leaves 

 commonly quite surpassing the raceme. 



5. MOXTIA, Micheli. Annuals, or by stolons or bulblets perennial. 

 Leaves opposite or alternate. Flowers few or many in axillary racemose 

 clusters, or in a single terminal raceme. Calyx, corolla, capsule and 

 seeds as in Clayloniar; but segments of corolla often unequal and 

 stamens reduced to 3. Seeds sometimes 1 or 2 only. 

 ■X- Leaves opposite. 

 -1— Annuals. 



1. M. foiitana, Linn. Sp. PI. i. 87 (1753). Stems slender, erect, 

 ascending or iirocumbent, 1 — 4 in. long : leaves narrowly oblanceolate or 

 spatulate, dilated and somewhat connate at base, I4 — j^:£ in. long : corolla 

 white, minute, little exceeding the calyx and seldom expanding, the 

 petals unequal, united at base : seed minute, roundish, dull black, but 

 under a lens shining and covered with an almost echiuate murication. — 

 Common and variable ; the coarser form inhabiting the margins of 

 streamlets and shores of muddy pools ; the smaller and nearly prostrate 

 state found on dry ground under growing grain in rather low fields. 



2. M. Hallii, Greene. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 283 (1887 j, under 

 C'lai/lonia. Larger than the last, 3^6 in. high, simple or sparingly 

 branched from the base: leaves in 2 or 3 pairs, oblanceolate or spatulate, 

 % — 1 in. long : corolla twice the length of the calyx ; petals equal : 

 seeds 1 or 2, muriculate. — In Plumas Co., Lemtnon, and in southern 

 Oregon; aspecies just intermediate between M. foniana and Chamissonis. 



-h- H— Perennial, stoloaiferous and ImJbilliferous. 



3. M. Chamissonis, Greene. Esch. in Spreng. Syst. i. 790 (1825), 

 undcB Claytonia. C. stolonifera, C. A. Mey., C. aquatica, Nutt. and 

 C. Jiagellaris, Bong. Stems weak, decumbent, 4 — 12 in. high, stolo- 

 niferous at base, and bearing bulblets at the ends of short branchlets or in 

 the lower axilg : leaves in few pairs, oblanceolate or spatulate, ig — 11^ in. 

 long: racemes few-flowered ; pedicels elongated : calyx minute, obtuse: 

 petals white, obovate-oblong, rounded and entire, three or four times the 

 length of the calyx : seed rather opaque, under a lens tuberculate- 



