276 - PORTULACACEtE. Montla. 



runners : radical and lower cauliue leaves rhombic-obovate, acutish, about half inch long, 

 contracted at base into slender petiole ; upper narrower and small (3 to 2 lines long), when 

 fresli subclavate : flowers few and racemose : petals obovate or somewliat obcordate, 4 or 5 

 lines long, very much surpassing the rounded sepals, rose-color, varying to white. — Cluy- 

 tonia parvifoUa, Moc. Ic. Vl. Nootk. ined. ace. to DC. Trod. iii. 361, & Cal(j[ues des Dess. 

 t. 383 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 201 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 76. C. JilicmUis, Hook. Fl. 

 Bor.-Am. i. 224, t. 72. — Moist rocks, Brit. Columbia to Rocky Mountains in Montana 

 northward to Juneau, Alaska, Miss Cooky, and south in the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range, 

 California, to the Yosemite. The bulblet-like propagula or offshoots, borne in the axils of 

 the cauline leaves, are not commonly seen in the dried specimens. A variety from Wash- 

 ington, Suksdorf, with obovate obtuse chiefly radical leaves and filiform branches, differs 

 from tlie next only in its smaller flowers and less leafy stem. 



M.* flagellaris, Robinson, n. comb. Apparently less fleshy, and with broadly ovate or 

 obovate leaves, the weak stems a foot long, sparingly branched, the branches apparently 

 attenuate into a kind of stolon or stoloniform peduncle : petals over half inch long. — Clny- 

 tonia flagellaris, Bong. Veg. Sitch. 137. " C. sarmentosa, Bong." in Gray, Proc. Am. Acad, 

 xxii. 283 (by evident clerical error). — Sitka, Mertens. Perhaps a form of the preceding 

 growing in deep shade. Prof. Macoun (Cat. Canad. PI. ii. 311, 312) reports the collection 

 of an identical or closely similar plant in the bed of Eagle Riv., Brit. Columbia (also called 

 "C. sarmentosa. Bong."). 



* * # * Leafy-stemmed and alternate-leaved annuals : leaves not very fleshy. — Chnj- 

 tonia § Montiastrum, Gray, 1. c. 



-1^ Leaves broad and long-petioled, in the way of Stellaria media : stamens 5 : seeds closely 

 lineate and the elevated lines closely and transversely lineolate ! 



M.* diffusa, Greene, 1. c. A span or two high, diffusely dichotomous, leafy, the weak stems 

 at first erect : leaves broadly deltoid- ovate or uppermost oblong-ovate, inch or less long, 

 abruptly contracted into a petiole of about equal length (lower occasionally opposite) : inflo- 

 rescence subcymose, several-flowered ; pedicels slender, spreading : calyx a line or two long, 

 surpassed by the white or pale rose-colored petals : style long. — Claytonia diffusa, Nutt. in 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 202 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 76 ; Gray, 1. c. —Low coniferous 

 woods, Washington to Humboldt Bay, California,^ Nuttall, Kellogg & Harford, Suksdorf, 

 Howell, Rattan. 



-i— -i— Narrow-leaved annuals (lower nodes of the stem sometimes rooting) with racemose 

 inflorescenc3 secund and pedicels recurved after flowering : leaves partly scarious and 

 clasping at insertion : stamens 3: seeds lenticular, thin-edged, very smooth : petals (white 

 or tinged with rose) obviously unequal, but narrowed or unguiculate to distinct or more 

 or less connate bases. 



M.* linearis, Greene, 1. c. A span or two high, erect or soon diffuse : leaves linear-filiform 

 and fleshy, inch or two long, about a line wide throughout, or obscurely widened upward : 

 sepals in fruit 2 lines long or nearly so, rounded : seeds large (a line in diameter), very black 

 and shining. — Claytonia linearis, Uougl. in Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 224, t. 71 ; Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c. ; Brew. & Wats. 1. c. (excl. syn. C. dichotoma) ; Gray, 1. c. — Moist ground, Brit. 

 Columbia to middle parts of California, and east to Montana and the Yellowstone ; first coll. 

 by Douglas. 



M.* dichotoma, Howell, 1. c. 36 An inch or two high, more diffuse or depressed but 

 not repent, smaller in all parts : leaves similar but smaller, linear or nearly so : racemes 

 terminal, rather dense, and numerously flowered : sepals in fruit only a line long : seeds 

 half or third of a line in diameter, somewhat sliining or rather dull at maturity. — Clay- 

 tonia dichotoma, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 202. C. spatlmlata, Hook. Jour. Bot. vi. 230, 

 not Dougl. — Low grounds on the Oregon River and its lower tributaries, and borders of 

 California ; first coll. by Nuttall. 



M.* Howellii, Watson. Similar in habit, but still more dwarf, rooting at the lower nodes : 

 leaves spatulate : inflorescences several, few-flowered, axillary, subtended by ovate scale-like 



1 Abundant at Mill Valley, Tamalpai-s, Calif., yi^^e T. S. & K. Brandegee. 



