460 AIZOACEAE 



AIZOACEAE. Caepet-weed Family. 



Ours prostrate or deenmbent herbs. Flowers perfect aucl regular, either 

 solitary or clustered. Calyx 4 or 5-lobed or -parted, either free from or more 

 or less adnate to the ovary. Stamens hypogynous or commonly perigynous, 

 fewer than the sepals or more numerous. Fruit a loculicidal or circumseissile 

 capsule or indehiseent. — Species 450 in IS genera, mostly African but occurring 

 in all continents. Plants of widely divergent aspect and flower structure. 



Calyx free from the ovary; petals none; leaves opposite. 

 Capsule loeulieidal. 3-valved; sepals 5; ovary 3-celleil. 



Stamens 3 to 5 ; herbage glabrous 1. MoLLUGO. 



Stamens 5 to 10 ; herbage sof t-pubeseent 2. Glinus. 



Capsule circumseissile; calyx 5-cleft. 



Stipules scarious, laciniate ; ovary 1-celled ; stamens 1 to 3 3. Cypselea. 



Stipules none; ovary 2 to 5-eelled ; stamens numerous 4. Sesuvium. 



Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, the flattish summit of the latter free. 



" Petals none; leaves alternate, plane; fruit indehiseent 5. Tetragonia. 



Petals numerous; leaves opposite, 3-sided and very fleshy; fruit dehiscent 



6. Mesembryanthemum. 



1. MOLLUGO L. Carpet-weed. 



Low glabrous much-branched annuals with whorled leaves and obsolete stip- 

 ules. Flowers axillary, on slender pedicels. Sepals 5, scarious-margined, white 

 within, thus resembling petals when expanded, persistent. Petals none. Sta- 

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

 the cells of the ovary. Stigmas 3. Capsule 3-celled. 3-valved, loculicidally 

 dehiscent, the partitions breaking away from the many-seeded axis. — All con- 

 tinents, chiefly Old World tropics, 13 species. (Ancient Latin name for some 

 soft plant.) 



1. M. verticillata L. Indian Ciiickweed. Stems prostrate, slender, many 

 from the base, 3 to 7 inches long, forming patches, not fleshy; leaves 5 or 

 6 in a whorl, unequal, oblanceolate, or spatulate. entire. 4 to 8 lines long; 

 flowers several at each node; sepals oblong, 1 line long; capsule ovoid, scarcely 

 exserted from the calyx ; seeds reniform. shining, nearly smooth, obviously 

 striate, crowded in the capsule and irregularly distending its half-transparent 

 walls, which are thus roughened. 



Native of the Old World tropics; introduced into California by way of 

 Mexico; sparingly naturalized. 



Locs. — Eagle Creek Canon, Modoc Co.. Brewer in 1S62; Stillwater (Shasta Co.), M. S. Baker 

 in 1898; Princeton, Chatidler in 1905; Healdsburg, Aliee King in 1897; Russian River, Davy 

 in 1896; Visalia ace. Coville; Los Angeles, Davidson in 1893. 



Ref. — MoLLUGO VERTICILLATA L. Sp. PI. 89 (1753), "Africa, Virginia." 



2. GLINUS L. 



Anmial herbs with whorled petioled leaves; very near Mollugo. Flowers 

 pedicelled in dense glomerules in the upper axils. Stamens 5 to 10 or 20. 

 Seeds with a strophiole, the funiculus very long and slender. — Species about 

 5, tropics and subtropics. (Greek name of Theophrastus for a maple, appli- 

 cation to this genus unknown.) 



1. G. lotoides Loefl. Diffusely branched from the base, the stems 4 to 8 

 inches long, procumbent or ascending; leaves orbicular to obovate, romided 

 at apex or abruptly acute, 3 to 6 lines long, at base narrowed to a slender 

 petiole; flowers 2 lines long; stamens 5; seeds blackish, granulated. 



Introduced into California from Europe, but only slightly established. 



Locs. — Lathrop, K. Brandegee ; Chico, Parri/; Lakeport (Zoe, 4: 153). 

 Eef. — Glinus lotoides Loefl. Iter Hisjian. 145 (1758), type loc. Spain. 



3. CYPSELEA Turp. 

 Inconspicuous prostrate annual. Leaves opposite, those of each pair un- 

 equal, and with scarious laciniate stipules. Tube of calyx short, campanulate, 



