Montia. PORTULACACE^E. 275 



Idaho. Ambiguous forni.i Montia rubra, Howell, 1. c, is merely a larger often erubescent 

 state of the same thing. 



M.* gypsophiloides, Howell, 1. c. Rather slender, 3 to 8 or 10 inches high, erect or 

 nearly so : radical leaves linear or filiform, much exceeded by the flowering stems : cauline 

 leaves usually short, ovate, acutish, to oblong-liuear, partially connate on one side (rarely on 

 both) to a small acutely biauriculate disk : inflorescence slender, elongated ; flowers conspicu- 

 ous : petals retuse, roseate, about 3 times the length of the sepals. — Clui/toiiia gyjisu/ihiloides, 

 risch. & Mey. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. ii. (1835), 8, & Sert. Petrop. t. 35; Don in Sweet 

 Brit. Fl. Gard. ser. 2, t. 375. C. spathuluta. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 282, in part, not 

 Dougl. — Mountains of W. Ceutr. California. C. nubigena, Greene, Pittonia, ii. 294, with 

 flowers of this species, has cauline leaves connate into a roundish disk, as in C. parvifolia. 



M.* spathulata, Howell, 1. c. Lower and more condensed, 1 to 4 inches high : radical 

 leaves linear or spatulate-liuear, not greatly exceeded by the flowering stems ; cauline leaves 

 from lauceolate-ovate to lanceolate, almost distinct or connate upon one side into an obcor- 

 date or 2-lobed body or rarely united all around to a peltate disk : inflorescences short, 

 half inch to barely inch in length : flowers small : petals white, 1 to 2 lines in length : seeds 

 at maturity black, shining, conspicuously granulated (under lens). — Claytonia spathulata, 

 Dougl. in Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 226, t. 74; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 200; Greene, Fl. Francis. 

 179. C. perfo/iata, var. spathulata, Torr. ace. to Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 75. C. exigua, 

 Wats. Bot. Calif, ii. 435, in great part. — Open and subsaline ground, Brit. Columbia to S. 

 Utah and S. California ; first coll. by Douglas. 



Var.* exigua, Robinson, n. comb. Even the cauline leaves narrowly oblong, linear 

 or when fresh terete (half inch to 2 inches long), little or not at all dilated or connate at 

 base, sometimes connate on one side : petals usually rose-color : passes variously into the 

 other form. — M. tennifolia, Howell, 1. c. Claytonia exigua, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 200 ; Gray, 

 PI. Fendl. 14 (a lax and dubious seemingly thinner-leaved form). C. tenuifolia, Torr. & 

 Gray, 1. c. 201 ; Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 344. C. spathulata, var. tenuifolia. Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. xxii. 282. — Brit. Columbia to borders of Idaho and Lower Calif., first coll. by 

 Douglas. 



* * Stems bearing few or several pairs of opposite spatulate leaves, fibrous-rooting from 

 lower nodes, often flagelliferous : seeds round-reniform, muriculate ! Stamens .5^ — Clay- 

 tonia § Alsinastrum, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 201 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 282. 



M.* Chamissonis, Greene. Procumbent, decumbent, or ascending, rooting from lower 

 nodes, producing lateral and terminal filiform runners, which become subterranean and bear 

 at apex a globose bulblet or cormlet, thus perennial : leaves several pairs, oblong-spatulate, 

 inch or two long including the tapering petiole-like base: inflorescence racemosely 1-9- 

 flowered, bractless except below : pedicels slender, recurved or refracted in fruit : petals pale 

 rose-color, 3 lines long, thrice the length of the calyx : capsule small, 1-3-seeded ; seeds 

 half line long, densely granulate-muriculate. — Fl. Francis. 180. Claytonia Chamissoi, Ledeb. 

 ace. to Spreng. Syst. i. 790. C. Chamissonis, Eschs. in litt. Jide Cham. Linnjea, vi. 562 (excl. 

 note on tubers), probably the original form of the name, but not published until six years 

 after Sprengel's Syst. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 676 ; Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 1. c. 151 ; Brew. & 

 Wats. I c. 76. C. stolonifera, C.A. Meyer, Me'm. Soc. Nat. Mosc. vii. 139, t. 3 (1829). 

 C. aquatica, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 201. — Wet or mossy banks, Alaskan Islands 

 and Brit. Columbia, to mountains of California as far south as those of San Bernardino, 

 Arizona, and S. Colorado. 



* * * Stems slender, bearing numerous small alternate leaves, often sarmentose, spreading 

 or decumbent, and producing axillary bulblet-like propagula, apparently also perennial 

 by fibroui5-rooting persisting creeping base of stem : leaves very fleshy. — Claytonia 

 § Naiocrene, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 201, in part ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 283. 



M.* parvifolia, Greene, 1. c. 181, Stems a span to a foot long, diffuse, ascending or some 

 reclined or procumbent and more or less flagelliform, sometimes reduced to filiform naked 



1 Eastward to tiie Black Hills, S. Dakota, Rydberg. A number of interesting, but apparently 

 formal and confluent varieties of this and the next species have been distributed b}' Mr. W. N. Suks- 

 dorf of White Salmon, Washington. 



