468 - PORTULACACEAE 



Stem from tuberous rootstock or eimulet : liigli southern Sierra 



13. M. heterophylla. 

 Pedicels bractless; plants with horizontal rootstock 14. M. asarifoliii. 



1. M. fontana L. Water Chickweed. Annual, or sub-perennial by rooting 

 at the nodes ; stems slender, 2 to 6 inches long, ascending or procumbent ; leaves 

 opposite, narrowly oblanceolate to spatulate-obovate or oblong, slightly con- 

 nate at base, 2 to 10 lines long; racemes loose. 3 to 0-flowered; sepals y^ to 1 

 line long; petals minute, white, unequal, united at base, and exceeding little the 

 sepals; seeds minute, rougheued. 



In water on margins of small surface streams or in muddy places. Occa- 

 sional throughout California. Northward to British Columbia and far across 

 the continent. Of world-wide distribution. Mar.-May. 



Locs. — Coast Ranges: Berkeley Hills, Tracy 540; San Bruno Hills, Jepson; San Francisco, 

 Chesnut ; Ross Valley, Drew ; Pt. Reyes, Greene; Kenwood, Biolctti; Rutherford and Calistoga, 

 Jepson: Snow Mt., 2'. Brandcgee ; Eureka, Tracy 2955; Oro Fino, Siskiyou Co., Butler 679. 

 Sierra Nevada: Jackson, Hansen ; Webber Lake, Kennedy ij- Doten ; Ft. Bidwell. Manninci 

 116. Southern California: Witch Creek (Erythea, 3: 60). The var. tenerrima Fernald 

 occurs in Indian Valley, Plumas Co., ace. Gray ; it is very slender with mostly broad-spatulate 

 petioled leaves in only 2 or 3 pairs, long-peduncled inflorescence, and sepals barely 1 line long. 



Refs. — MoNTiA FONTANA L. Sp. PI. 87 (1753). type European; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 

 187 (1901). Var. tenerrima Fern., Rhod. 12: 138 (1910). Claytonia cliamissonis var. tener- 

 rima Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 8: 378 (1872), type loc. Ore., Elihu Hall. C. hallii Gray, 1. c. 22: 

 283 (1887), type same as in var. tenerrima Fern. Montia hallii Greene, Fl. Fr. 180 (1891), 

 "corolla twice the length of the calyx". 



2. M. howellii Wats. Annual ; stems simple or branching, diffuse or pro- 

 cumbent, i/o to 2 inches long; leaves alternate, elongated linear-spatulate, 4 to 

 10 lines long; racemes axillary, umbellately 2 or 3-flowered, shorter than the 

 leaves ; leaves opposite the racemes with a rather broad scarious-dilated clasp- 

 ing base, the racemes sul)tended by an ovate or short scale-like scarious bract ; 

 petals 3 or 4, unequal, minute, sometimes absent; stamens 3; seeds shining, 

 microscopically foveolate-lineate. 



Very wet soil, coast region : Humboldt Co. north to Washington. 



Ref. — Montia howellii Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 18: 191 (1883), type loc. Sauvies Is!., Ore., 

 Jos. 4" Thos. Howell. Perhaps this is an alternate-leaved variety of M. fontana, with which it 

 quite agrees in habit. 



3. M. linearis Greene. Annual, nearly simple or very nuu-h liranched, erect. 

 1 to 6 inches high; leaves alternate, narrowly and elongated linear (1 to 2yo 

 inches long and i/o to 1 line wide), sessile by a clasping base; racemes terminal, 

 commonly secund, about 4 to 8-flowered ; pedicels 2 to 5 lines long ; sepals broad 

 and rounded or almost truncate, white-margined, straw-color in age; petals 

 white, unequal, narrowly obovate, narrowed at base or clawed, slightly united 

 on one side and not on the other side. 2 to 2i o lines long, slightly exceeding the 

 sepals; stamens 3, inserted on the very base of the smaller petals; seeds lenti- 

 cular, nearly or quite 1 line broad, smooth and shining, finely reticulated under 

 a lens. 



Wet banks : central Sierra Nevada. 3000 to 4500 feet, and Coast Kanges. East 

 into Nevada, north to British Columbia and Montana. 



Locs. — Coast Ranges: Las Trampas, Contra Costa Co., Hall 1626; Napa Valley, Bigelow 

 in 1854 (ace. Pac. R. Rep. 4: 71); Yager, Humboldt Co., Blantinship ; Yreka, Butler 680; 

 Oro Fino, Butler 677. Sierra Nevada: Yosemite. Harriet Walker 2432; Pioneer, Amador Co., 

 Hansen; Pressor Creek, Nevada Co.. Sonne; Prattville, Brandepce ; Forestdale, Modoc Co., 

 M. S. Baker; Ft. Bidwell, Manning 99. 



Refs.— Montia linearis Greene, Fl. Fr. 181 (1891); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. ed. 2, 162 

 (1911). Claytonia linearis Dougl.; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 224, pi. 71 (18,34), type loc. Great 

 and Little Falls of the Columbia River, Douyla.'i. 



