Spergularia. CARYOPHYLLACEiE. 249 



also in paths, etc., Newfoundland to Pennsylvania, and (ace. to Chapman) N. Carolina- 

 also rarely inland as far as Michigan, Hill; fl. through the summer. (Eu., Asia, S. Amer.) 

 Specimens with petals obsolete or wanting do not seem to be rare. Dwarfed specimens 

 from Labrador, coll. Allen, may also be of this species. 



* * * Stems very short, 4 lines to 2 inches long; flowers rather small, 5-parted, terminal: 

 leaves thickish, narrowly linear to subulate, not proliferous in the upper axils but com- 

 monly forming sterile rosettes about the base. 



S. Linneei, Presl. Matted, l to 3 inches high : stems slender, decumbent, rooting and 

 often producing lateral rosettes : radical leaves narrowly linear, mucronate, 3 to 7 lines 

 long, forming dense and mostly persistent rosettes ; cauline leaves short, few : pedicels 

 long, filiform, commonly recurved at the summit ; flowers moderately large for the genus : 

 petals not quite equalling the calyx : capsule ovate, conic, even before dehiscence consider- 

 ably exceeding the sepals; the dry valves fully twice their length: stamens 5 to 10. 



Rel. Haenk. ii. 14 (Llnnei) ; Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i. 339; Wats. Bot. King Exp. 41. 

 S. saxatilis, Wimm. in Lange, PI. Grcenl. 133. S. saginoides, Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, v. 



151. Spergula saginoides, L. Spec. i. 441. Alsinella saginoides, Greene, Fl. Francis. 125. 



Labrador (?) to Greenland, Alaska, and southward in mountainous regions to New Mexico 

 and S. California, Palmer, Parish. (Widely distributed in the Old World.) 



S. nivalis, Fries. Very condensed, one half to one inch high: leaves subulate, or linear- 

 subulate, 2 to 3 (rarely 5) lines long, forming one or more dense rosettes; cauline leaves 

 few and short : pedicels spreading, 5 lines in length, straight or curved but scarcely ever 



hooked at the summit : petals equalling the purple-edged sepals, about a line in length. 



Mant. iii. 31 ; Hook. f. Arc. PI. 287, 322; Babington, Jour. Bot. ii. 340; Wats. Bot. Kino- 



Exp. 42. S. intermedia, Fenzl, 1. c. Arenaria ca^spitosa, Vahl, Fl. Dan. t. 2289. A rai-e 



plant, first collected in America by Dr. Watson in the Uinta Mts. in 1869 (U. S. Nat. Herb.) ; 

 since found in Alaska, without the exact locality. Ball ,- Kyska Harbor, Harrington ; and 

 also in the Rocky Mts. of Colorado near Gray's Peak, Patterson. (Greenland, N. Eu.) The 

 species has been regarded by some autliors, and perhaps rightly, as a boreal or high alpine 

 form of the preceding. 



* * * * Distinctly fleshy : stems not filiform, more or less branched, several-flowered : 

 flowers 5-parted : species of the Pacific Coast. 



S. crassicaulis, Watson. Smooth: stems several or many, branching, 1^ to 5 inches 

 long: leaves linear, pungent, thickish, 2| to 7 (rarely 12) lines long; tlie basal formino- a 

 rosette which may persist or not ; the cauline connate by broad scarious membranes: pedicels 

 numerous, straight: petals and sepals subequal, 1^ lines in length : capsule one third to one 

 half longer. — Proc. Am. Acad, xviii. 191. 6'. occidentalis (?), Henderson (on authority'of 

 Dr. Watson), Zoe, ii. 260. Alsinella crassicaulis, Greene, Fl. Francis. 125. — Beaches, Cali- 

 fornia, Marin Co., Congdon, Monterey Co., Michener & Biotetti, Tomales Bay, Blankinship, 

 to Washington, Ilwaco, Henderson, and Vancouver Isl., ace. to J. M. Macoun. Distinguished 

 from the Japanese S. maxima. Gray, by its glabrous peduncles and calyx. 



***** Stems simple, 2 to 6 inches in length : upper leaves short, proliferous, i. e. 

 bearing fascicles of minute leaves in their axils : flowers 5-parted : petals exceeding the 

 calyx: species of the Atlantic Slope, Great Lakes, and Hudson Bay region. 



S. nodosa, Fenzl. Perennial : stems several to many, decumbent, rooting at the base, 

 often 5 to 6 inches in length : lower leaves filiform ; the upper subulate, only a line in 

 length, bearing a tuft of undeveloped leaves in the axils, thus giving a nodose appearance 

 to the slender stems : flowers terminal, large for the genus, 4 lines in diameter when ex- 

 panded. — Verbreit. Alsin. 18, & in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i.340. Spergula nodosa, L. Spec. i. 440; 

 Fl. Dan. t. 96. — Moist sandy soil, along the Atlantic Coast from Labrador (ace. to Macoun), 

 to Cape Ann, J. Robinson ; Anticosti, Pursh ; also on both shores of Lake Superior and 

 northward to Hudson Bay, Burke ,- fl. July, August. The most conspicuous and attractive 

 species of the genus. 



14. SPERGULARIA, J. & C. Presl. (Name a derivative of Spergula.) 

 — Annuals, biennials, or perennials, usually of maritime or saline habitat, with 



