254 CARYOPHYLLACE^. Drymaria. 



ternate, ovate, obtuse, thickish, 3-5-nerved, 3 to 6 lines long, rather abruptly contracted into 

 slender petioles 2 to 3 lines in length : pedicels equalling or slightly exceeding the petioles, 

 1-flowered : sepals obtusish, If lines long, with conspicuous membranous margins : seeds 

 black, of rather irregular form, with broad thin cotyledons incumbent upon the curved 

 radicle. — Bot. Sulph. 16 ; Wats. Bibl. Index, 103 ; Brandegee, Zoe, ii. 68, 69 (where prop- 

 erly distinguished from D. crassifolia). D. crassifolia, Vasey & Rose, Contrib. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb. i. 66; Brandegee, Froc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, ii. 131, not of later publications. D. 

 Veatchii, Curran, Froc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ser. 2, i. 227. Mollugo verticillata, var., Coulter, Con- 

 trib. U. S. Nat. Herb. i. 39. M. Cambessedesii, Coulter, 1. c. ii. 138. — W. Texas, in dry bed 

 of Tarlinga Creek, Havard, Limpia Canon, Neallei/. (Lower Calif ., Brdiidegee, Palmer.) 

 D. CRASSIFOLIA, Benth. 1. c. (Brandegee, Zoe, ii. 68, 69), is a nearly related probably peren- 

 nial species of Lower California (coll. Hinds, Xanthus, Brandegee), differing in its more con- 

 densed habit, thicker and more glaucous broadly rhombic-ovate or suborbicular leaves and more 

 regular seeds with narrower cotyledons. 



D. poLYCARPofoES, Gray (PI. Fendl. 12), of Northern Mexico, may attain our southwestern 

 borders. It resembles D. holosteoides and D. crassifolia, but has scarcely petioled ovate-lanceo- 

 late leaves. (Mex., Gregg, Palmer.) 



* * Cauline leaves linear, pseudoverticillate. 



D. sperguloides, Gray. Covered with a fine grayish pubescence or quite glabrous : radi- 

 cal leaves spatulate, fugacious : stem erect, with spreading branches and pseudoverticels of 

 4 to 8 sessile narrow obtuse slightly fleshy leaves : inflorescence diffuse ; flowers slender- 

 pedicelled. — PI. Fendl. 11, & PI. Wright, ii. 19; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 37. — Cornfields, 

 etc., Texas, near Presidio del Norte, Parry ; New Mexico, Fendler, Wright ; Arizona, 

 Palmer, Lemmon. 



D. visc6sA, Watson (Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 469), of N. Lower Calif., if it reaches S. Cali- 

 fornia, may be distinguished from the preceding by its prostrate habit and smaller nearly sessile 

 and very viscid flowers. (Lower Calif., Orcutt, Palmer.) 



* * * Cauline leaves linear, opposite : stems erect, delicate, much branched : flowers short- 

 pedicelled in the forks of a diffuse inflorescence. 



D. efEusa, Gray. Viscid, especially upon the upper part of each internode : radical leaves 

 obovate, seldom persisting ; cauline very narrowly linear, obtuse : sepals elliptic, obtuse or 

 scarcely acute, not distinctly ribbed, considerably exceeded by the petals. — PI. Wright, ii. 

 19; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 37. — Mountainous districts, New Mexico, Wright; Arizona, 

 Rothrock, Lemmon. (Adj. Mex., Thurber.) 



D. tenella, Gray. In size and habit closely resembling the preceding, but glabrous and 

 not viscid : sepals acutish, rather strongly ribbed, a line in length, about equalling the 

 petals. — PI. Fendl. 12, & PI. Wright, ii. 19. — Shady places, woodland, New Mexico, 

 Fendler, Wright, Greene. ( Adj. Mex., Pr ingle.) 

 T). NODOSA, Engelm. in Gray, PI. Fendl. 12, of Mexico, is a third closely related species, 



but has glandular stems, and somewhat larger flowers with attenuate rather rigid sepals (1^ 



to 2 lines long). 



17. POLYCARPON, [Loefl.] L. (HoAw, much, many, and KapTro'?, 

 fruit, from the innumerable capsules.) — Flowers numerous, cymose, very 

 small. — Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 881, later ascribed by Linnaeus (Gen. ed. 6, no. 105) 

 toLcefling; DC. Prodr. iii. 376; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 173. Folycarpa, Loefl. 

 It. 7, the earliest name but not characterized. — A small genus of low much- 

 branched annuals. 



P. UNiFLORUM, Walt. (Car. 83), is obscure. It may well have been Arenaria alsinoides. 

 Described as pentapetalous, it certainly cannot have been Sesuvium Portulacastrum, to which it 

 has been of late referred. 



P. TETRAPHf LLUM, L. Nearly or quite smooth : stems 2 to 6 inches long, prostrate or ascend- 

 ing : leaves quaternate or opposite, oblong or obovate, obtuse, 2^ to 6 lines long, abruptly 

 narrowed to short petioles : stipules and bracts scarious, acuminate, the latter equalling the 

 rather sharply carinate sepals: petals white. — Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 881, & Spec. ed. 2, i. 131 ; 



