278 PORTULACACEiE. Calyptridium. 



growing as an annual or biennial ; first coll. by Fremont. The most marked subalpiue 

 form is 



Var. caudicifera, Gray. Branching from the crown, the caudex-like branches 

 extending for a year or more, and the leaves below dying away, at length the rosulate tufts 

 terminated by solitary naked scapes of an iucli or two in length bearing the globular glom- 

 erate inflorescence : tap-root probal)ly not perennial : leaves short and small. — Gray in 

 Patterson, Check-list N. Am. Tl. (1892) 14.^ — High mountains, from Oregon and Washing- 

 ton to Wyoming. 



9. CALYPTRfDIUM, Nutt. (A kind of diminutive of KaXvTrrpa, a cov- 

 ering or calyptre. Genus said to have " petals united into a minute diaphanous 

 conical corolla, slightly 3-toothed at apex, soon detached from the base and car- 

 ried upon the summit of the elongated capsule." But, in fact, the petals are quite 

 distinct, and they close over each other and over the pistil after the ephemeral 

 anthesis, and are carried up as aforesaid, just as they are in Claytonia and most 

 other Portulacacece !) — Low or depressed and succulent vv^inter annuals (of W. 

 North America), branched from the base, with alternate spatulate leaves, and 

 mostly secund insignificant flowers with very small (white) petals, but accrescent 

 and more or less colored and scarious calyx. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 198 

 (excl. syn. Talinum monandrum, which is Monocosmia, Fenzl, with inaccrescent 

 calyx enclosing utricular fruit) ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 159 ; AVats. Bot. King 

 Exp. 44 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 78 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 284, with 

 new character. 



* Petals 4 : stamens in the same species 1 , 2, or 3, when solitary opposite a petal : capsule 

 little or not at all surpassing the fructiferous calyx; seeds acute-margined. Connects 

 with Spraguea ! 



C. quadripetalum, Watson. A span high : leaves oblong-spatulate, the larger 2 inches 

 long including tapering base and petiole : flowers crowded as if imbricated in a naked and 

 secund scorpioid-spiciform inflorescence : sepals rouud-reniform, plane, at maturity fully 3 

 lines in diameter, white-scarious and rose-tinged with greenish centre : petals comparatively 

 large: style very short : capsule oblong-oval, 10-20-seeded, not surpassing the fructiferous 

 sepals. — Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 356.^ — Lake Co., California, Torrey (186.'j) ; and along head- 

 waters of Eel River, in same county. Rattan (1884).^ Has the sepals of Spraguea. 



C. Parryi, Gray. Depressed, small-leaved : leaves (only half inch long) spatulate or the 

 rosulate radical ones cuneate-obovate with long tapering base : spikes in age secund and 

 scorpioid, but often with short few-flowered clusters : fructiferous sepals orbicular or oval, 

 not emarginate at base, less complanate, herbaceous Avith narrow white margin, one or two 

 lines long, a little shorter than the oblong capsule : style half the length of the ovoid ovary. 

 — Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 285. — Mountains of San Bernardino Co., California, in Bear 

 Valley, Parry (1876, distrib. as C. rosenm, var. rohustum), Parish, 1885. 



* * Petals 2 or 3 : stamen one, alternate with the petals : sepals moderately accrescent, 

 green-herbaceous with scarious margin ; seeds more turgid, obtuse-edged : inflorescence 

 looser and more paniculate, the short clusters hardly scorpioid : leaves spatulate with 

 long tapering base, the larger inch or more long. 



C. roseum, Watson. An inch to a span high, diffuse : sepals orbicular, plane, becoming 

 2 or 3 lines in diameter, the broad scarious margin white or tinged with rose : petals only 

 2 and small : style very short, 2-parted and with subcapitate stigmas : capsule ovate-oblong, 

 not surpassing the calyx, 6-12-seeded. — Bot. King Exp. 44, t. 6, f. 6-8 ; Brew. & Wats. 



1 Add syn. S. multiceps, Howell, Erythea, i. 39. As striking as the extreme form of this variety 

 may lie, it appears to pass by slight gradations into the typical form of the species. 



2 Add sj'n. C tetrapetalum, Greene, Fl. Francis. 182. 

 8 Also in Sonoma Co., ace. to Greene. 



