SPRAGUEA. PORTULACACE^:. 97 



CALYPTRIDIUM. 



*+ ** Perennials with a thickened crown and fibrous roots. 



M. Sibirica Howell 1. c. 38. Claytonia Sibirica L. Sp. 204 ( f). Sea- 

 pose stems 6-15 inches high from a thickened crown with fibrous roots: 

 radical leaves rhombic-ovate or nearly orbicular to lanceolate, 1-3 inches 

 long, ^-2 inches wide : involucral leaves ovate or spatulate-ovate to lan- 

 ceolate, /i-2 inches long : flowers on slender pedicels in elongated bracted 

 geminate racemes ; sepals ovate, acute, 1-1 % lines long ; petals oblong, nar- 

 rowed to a short claw below, somewhat truncate and notched at the upper 

 end, 3-6 lines long. Common in moist ground, Alaska to California, west 

 of the Cascade Mountains. 



M. bulbifera Howell 1. c. Claytonia bulbifera Gray I. c. xii, 54. Stems 

 rather slender, 4-12 inches high, erect or ascending from a cluster of 

 bulblets that are the fleshy persistent bases of former leaves : leaves orbic- 

 ular or rhombic to lanceolate, (',-18 lines long, narrowed below to a slender 

 petiole 2-4 inches long : involucral leaves orbicular fo obovate or elliptical, 

 sessile but not connate: raceme solhary and terminal, rarely with a second 

 one in the axil of a bract below the terminal one; bracts foliaceous; pedi- 

 cels filiform, 1-2 inches long: sepals cordate, 1-2 lines long, about as 

 broad, acutish ; petals oblong, emarginate to 2-lobed, 4-6 lines long, white 

 with red or purple veins; stamens about half as long as the petals: cap- 

 sule globose: seeds moderately compressed, ovate, with a conspicuous 

 white appendage at the hilum. Along streams and damp places in forests, 

 southwestern Oregon and adjacent California. 



IV. Sepals , broad, more or less scarious, persistent: cap- 

 sule 2-valved. 



9. SPRAGUEA Torr. PL Frem. 4 t. 1. 



Herbs with rosulate tufts of fleshy leaves from the crown of 

 a fleshy root, or on densely-leafy sterns, and ephemeral flowers in 

 dense scorpioid spikes umbellate-clustered on a scape-like pedunc- 

 le. Sepals 2, orbicular, emarginate at both ends, scarious-hyaline, 

 persistent. Petals 4, somewhat unequal. Stamens 3, opposite 

 the 3 larger petals, exserted. Ovary 8-10-ovuled ; style long, bifid 

 at the apex. Capsule 2-valved, membranaceous. Seeds black 

 and shining. 



S. umbellata Torr. 1. c. Stems several from a thickened biennial 

 root, simple, erect or ascending 2-12 inches high : radical leaves spatulate 

 or oblanceolate, on thick petioles 1-4 inches long; the cauline similar but 

 smaller, frequently scarious-stipulate, often reduced to a few bracts; invo- 

 lucre of broader scarious bracts subtending the dense capitate umbel of 

 nearly sessile spikes : sepals very conspicuous, 2-4 lines in diameter, about 

 equalling the oblong-ovate petals : stamens and style conspicuously ex- 

 serted. In damp sandy places from the Siskiyou to the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains. 



S. mnlticeps Howell Eryth. i, 39. Depressed freely branching per- 

 ennial: stems 1-6 inches long with densely leafy branches: leaves 3-6 

 lines long or on young plants 2 or 3 inches long: peduncle solitary, 

 terminating the short lateral bractlets, usually with 1 or 2 scarious bracts 

 below the involucre : flowers in dense capitate clusters : sepals scarious, 2-4 

 lines in diameter, about equalling the oblong-ovate petals : stamens and 

 style conspicuously exserted. In volcanic sand, etc., on the snowy peaks 

 of the Cascade Mountains. 



9 CALYPTRIDIUM Nutt. T. & G. Fl. i, 198. 



Smooth depressed annuals with alternate fleshy leaves and 

 timiil ephemeral flowers in dense axillary find terminal clusters 



