Arenaria. CARYOPHYLLACEiE. 245 



A. stricta, Michx., but is to be distinguished by its small flowers and puberulent inflorescence. 

 The habitally identical A. tenui/ulia, L., of the Old World, has shorter petals and more 

 slender capsules, distinctions which are none too strong. 



A. patula, Michx. Stems diffusely branched, 2 inches to a foot in height, often almost 

 filiform : leaves spreading, slightly fleshy : inflorescence dichotomous ; pedicels filiform, 

 spreading : sepals lanceolate, attenuate, with 3 to 5 prominent converging nerves, slightly 

 indurated, a little over 2 lines in length, usually minutely glandular : petals twice as long, 

 entire or retuse, obcordate : the obtuse valves of the capsule about equalling the calyx ; 

 seeds black, minutely roughened. — Fl. i. 273 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 180; Gray, Man. ed. .5, 

 91 ; Hill, Bull. Torr. Club, xvii. 172 ; MacMillan, Bot. Gaz. xv. 332. A. Pitcheri, Nutt., and 

 ■? A. tenella, Nutt. 1. c. 180, so far as Arkansas plants are concerned. Alsine vikrosperma, 

 Fenzl, 1. c. ^. /)a<«/a. Gray, Man. ed. 2,58; Chapm. Fl. 49. A. Pitcheri, Wood, Class- 

 Book, ed. of 1861, 260; Chapm. Fl. ed. 2, 608. Stellaria macropetala, Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 i. 184 {Alsine macropetala, Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 34), differing only in the slightly more deeply 

 divided petals, which are themselves more or less variable, must be referred here, where its 

 identity of habit and calyx clearly indicates its affinity to be. — Kentucky to Florida (ace. 

 to Chapman) ; Alabama, Peters, Mohr ; Texas, Drummond, Meyer, Buckley ; and Indian 

 Terr., Carleton (ace. to Holzinger), northward to Chicago, Babcock, Hill, and Cass Co., 

 Minnesota (ace. to MacMillan) ; fl. April to July. The leaves of this species are variable, 

 more often narrowly linear or filiform, 4 to 7 lines in length, but occasionally Ij inches long 

 and a line wide. 



•i— -f— Glabrous. 



A. stricta, Michx. Smooth, loosely matted : stems nume'rous, slender, ascending, 3 to 15 

 inches high, leafy nearly to the middle : leaves subulate-setaceous, conspicuously fascicled 

 in the axils : inflorescence a loosely forked cymose panicle : petals narrowly obovate, nearly 

 twice the length of the somewhat rigid acuminate prominently 3-ribbed sepals : capsule 

 about equalling or exceeding the calyx. — Fl. i. 274 ; Ell. Sk. i. 521 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 

 99, t. 33 (including both var. a, a weak boreal few-flowered form with erect leaves, and 

 var. j8, the common form with spreading leaves) ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 179 (at least var. 

 &); Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, ii. 37. ■? ^. setacea, Muhl. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. iii. 169. 

 A. Michauxii, Hook. f. Arc. PI. 287, 322. Alsine Michauxii, Fenzl, Verbreit. Alsin. 18; 

 Kegel, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxv. 232, t. 8, f. 1-5. — Rocky and gravelly soil, Vermont to 

 S. Carolina, westward to the Black Hills, Rydberg (lax form), and (ace. to J. M. Macoun) to 

 the Rocky Mts. of Brit. America ; fl. May to July. 



Var. Texana, Robinson. More rigid : stems fewer, 3 to 7 inches high, strongly 

 enlarged at the nodes : leaves very short, conspicuously connate ; the fascicled ones only 1 

 to 2 lines long : flowers in a small rather dense cyme : sepals almost cartilaginous, very 

 strongly 3-nerved, appearing attenuate through the infolding of their margins. — Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xxix. 302. '>■ A. stricta, var. a, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 179. — Rocky Hills, Texas, Gordon, 

 Bigelow, Hall, Reverchon ; Arkansas, Leavenworth-; Indian Terr., Palmer ; Kansas, Smylhe; 

 and S. W. Missouri, Blankinship. A .specimen from Potosi, Mo., coll. by F. Peck, exactly 

 connects this variety with the type. 



***** Perennials, closely matted or tufted, 1 to 6 inches in height : sepals acuminate, 

 but not strongly nerved except in A. verna. 



A. verna, L. Rather closely tufted : stems numerous, slender, ascending or erect, smooth, 

 1 to 5 inches high, l-3(or more)-flowered ; the upper internodes commonly much exceeding 

 the leaves : leaves linear-subulate, flat, rather strongly 3-nerved, usually erect and never 

 squarrose : peduncles filiform : sepals ovate-oblong, acutish to acuminate, strongly 3-nerved, 

 1^ to If lines long, exceeding the obovate or oblanceolate obtusish petals : capsule somewhat 

 surpa.ssing the calyx. — Maiit. i. 72 ; Seringe in DC. Prodr. i. 405 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 

 99; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 181. A. juniperina, Pursh, Fl. i. 318; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 98; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 179, 674. Alsine verna, Bartl. Beitr. ii. 63. — A widely distributed 

 ffistival rather than vernal species (fl. June to August) with numerous but ill-defined vari- 

 eties. The smooth typical form appears to be common in the Rocky Mts. of Brit. America, 

 Macoiin, and extends even as far southward as Colorado, Wolf & Rothrock. It has been 

 found on Mt. Albert, Lower Canada, Allen. A far more frequent form is 



