Sesuvium. FICOIDE^. 259 



perhaps not indigenous ; also Central California (where certainly introduced), on and near 

 the coast, Sta. Cruz, Pain/ ; banks and marshes of San Joaquin Kiver, Congdon, Michener 

 & Biolelti. (W. Ind. on Cuba, St. Domingo, Virgin Ids., &c.) 



4. TRIANTHEMA, Sauv. (Tper?, three, and dvdcfxov, flower, from the 

 often ternate nature of the inflorescence.) — de Sauvages, Meth. Fol. 127; L. 

 Spec. i. 223; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i, 855. — A small genus of prostrate herbs 

 or undershrubs, tropical and subtropical, chiefly of Asia, Africa, and Australia, 

 the only American species being 



T. Portulacastrum, L. Diffusely and dichotomously branched herb, somewhat succu- 

 lent ; procumbent or prostrate branches terete, smooth or papillose-puberuleut, 6 inches to 

 3 feet in length : leaves opposite, obovate to suborbicular, entire or nearly so, half inch to 

 inch long, obtuse, rounded, mucronate, or retuse at the apex, usually cuneate at the base ; 

 the leaves of each pair unequal ; petioles dilated near the base into bidentate stipular expan- 

 sions, connate about the stem, the sheath, thus formed, bearing an intermediate tooth on 

 each side : flowers small, closely sessile in the forks of the branches, purplish within : sepals 

 ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, withering to a sort of rostrum upon the broad oblique summit 

 of the circumscissile few-seeded capsule ; style single ; ovary at length partially divided into 

 two superposed cells. — Spec. i. 223 (Portulaca Curassavica procumbens, Herm. Farad. Bat. 

 213, t. 213) ; Hook. f. & Jackson, Index Kew. ii. 1 101 . T. monognna, L. Mant. 69 ; Lam. 111. 

 ii. 496, t. 375, f. 1 ; Gray, PI. Wright, i. 15, ii. 20; Payer, Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3, xviii. 241, 

 t. 12; Chapm. Fl. ed. 2, 607. — Forming mats on shores, in saline places, or in rich garden 

 soil; Keys of Florida to Arizona, and not infrequent on ballast in the Middle Atlantic 

 States. (Max., Lower Calif., W. Ind., and widely distributed in the warmer parts of the 

 Old World.) 



5. SEStJVIUM, L. Sea Purslane. (Etymology unknown.) — Syst. 

 Nat. ed. 10, 1058, & Spec. ed. 2, i. 684; Jacq. Stirp. Am. t. 95 ; Gray, Gen. 111. 

 i. 229, t. 100 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 855. Sesuvium & Pyxipoma, Fenzl, 

 Ann. Wien. Mus. ii. 292, 293. — A small but widely distributed genus of fleshy 

 prostrate or sub-erect mostly maritime herbs or undershrubs with axillary purplish 

 apetalous flowers. 



* Stamens many, indefinite. 



S. Portulacastrum, L. 11. cc. Stems numerous, long, spreading, decumbent, often rooting 

 at the lower nodes, quite smooth or slightly verrucose : leaves linear-oblong to spatulate, 

 mostly acutish, 1 to 2 inches in length : flowers 4 or 5 lines long, usually on peduncles of 

 nearly or quite their own length : sepals narrowly oblong, horned on the back near the 

 apex. — DC. Prodr. iii. 453 ; Chapm. Fl. 44. S. pedunciitatum, Pers. Syn. ii. 39. Portulaca 

 Portulacastrum, L. Spec. i. 446 (Herm. Parad. Bat. t. 112; Pluk. Aim. t. 216, f. 1). — Sea- 

 beaches and sandy banks near the coast, N. Carolina, M. A. Curtis; Florida. (W. Ind., 

 Bermuda, most tropics, China.) 



S. sessile, Pers. More erect and bushy, never rooting from the nodes, copiously and dichot- 

 omously branched : stems smooth or very often finely verrucose with crystalline globules as 

 in Mesembryanthemum : leaves shorter and mostly broader and more obtuse than in the 

 preceding species, oblanceolate or obovate-oblong : flowers subsessile, 2 to 3 lines in length : 

 sepals rather broadly ovate-oblong, dorsally cornute near the apex. — Syn. ii. 39. S. Purt.ti- 

 lacastriim, DC. PI. Grass, t. 9 ; Torr. in Emory, Rep. 137, & Bot. Mex. Bound. 38; Coulter, 

 Man. Rocky Mt. Reg. 112; Greene, Fl. Francis. 239; not L. S. Portulacastrum, var. subses- 

 sile, Gray (PI. Wright, i. 13, ii. 19) in Wats. Bibl. Index, 411, probably not of Cambess. in 

 St. Hil. Fl. Bras. Merid. ii. 200, which, being the much smaller-flowered S. parviflorum, DC, 

 of S. Am., is presumabl}' a distinct species. — Beaches, river banks, and .sterile saline plains, 

 coast of Texas, to S. Kansas, Carleton, and Colorado, Crandall; N. W. Nevada, Lemmon, and 

 California from the valley of the San Joaquin near Stockton, Jepson, southward. (Lower 

 Calif., Orcutt ; Northern Mex. ; S. Brazil.) A plant of too distinct habit and range, at least 



