94 PORTULACACE 4. CLAYTONIA. 
MONTIA, 
the base of the lowest pedicel: sepals cyate, acutish ¢r obtuse, 1-1 lines 
long: petals 3-4 lines long, pale rose color with darker veins: roots glo- 
bose. Eastern Washington and Oregon .to the Rocky Mountains, Nevada 
and California, in mountainous districts. 
C. umbellata Watson Bot. King 43, t. 6. Scapose stems an inch or 
two high: radical leaves orbicular to oblong or ovate on long slender pet- 
ioles (often wanting on flowering specimens): inyolucral leaves orbicular 
to ovate or rhomboidal, on slender petioles: flowers 3-5 in a subsessile um- 
bel, subtended by a broad scarious bract: petals 8-4 lines long, a little 
longer than the rounded, obtuse, somewhat scarious sepals: root of vari- 
ous shape, usualiy oblong or fusiform, 44-2 inches long. In gravelly 
ground, Stein’s Mountain, southeastern Oregon to Nevada. 
* * Stems and leaves from the crown of a fleshy root. 
C. Megarrhiza Parry Watson Bib. Ind. 118. Leaves numerous, 
cuneate with rounded apex, attenuate below to a margined petiole 
with scarious dilated base 1-6 inches long. 2-18 lines wide; scapose stems 
not exceeding the leaves: involucral leaves lanceolate or linear sessile: 
raceme secund, subsessile. with comparatively large acutish scarious 
bract at base; sepals oblong 2-3 lines long, petals obovate subemargin- 
‘ate; a third longer than the sepals. High alpine, growing in creyices of 
rocks, its large purple tap-root penetrating to a great depth. Blue Mount- 
ains of eastern Oregon to the Rocky Mountains. fete 
7 MONTIA Micheli Nova Plantarum Gen. 17 t. 13. 
Low glabrous and succulent herbs with delicate pale or white 
flowers in loose axillary or terminal simple or compound ra- 
cemes. Sepals 2, rarely 3, persistent. Petals usually 5, rarely 3 
or wanting; more or less united at base, usually unequal, 3 of 
them a little smaller than the other 2. Stamens-3-—5, inserted on 
the base of the corolla, opposite its lobes. Ovary 3-ovuled: cap- 
sule 3-valved, 3-seeded. : 
* Leafy-stemmed annuals: petals unequal. 
+ At least the lower leaves opposite. — 
M. minor Gmelin FI. Bad. i, 301, (?), Stems weak and filiform, form- 
ing dense mats 2-10 inches in diameter rooting at the lower nodes: leaves 
spatulate or obovate to narrowly oblanceolate, 3-9 lines iong: flowers a 
line long or less: petals conspicuous a little longer than the calyx: seeds 
dull black, tuberculate. In wet places and ditches, Washington to north- 
ern California. 
+ Leaves all alternate. 
++ Stamens 2 or 3: opposite the 3 smaller petals. 
M. Howellii Watson Proc. Am. Acad. xviii, 191. Stems slender, dif- 
fusely branched 44 3 inches long, procumbent and rooting at the nodes: 
leaves narrowly spatulate 2-4 lines long with a dilated scarious clasping 
base, rarely opposite, usually opposite toa triangular scarious clasping 
bract which subtends a few-flowered raceme: pedicels shorter than the 
leaves, reflexed in fruit: flowers very small: sepals less than a line long: 
petals 2, rarely 3-5 or wanting; the 2 larger a little exserted : seeds black, 
smooth and shining. Willamette valley: flowers in very early spring. 
M. dichotoma Howell 1. c. 36. Claytonia dichotoma Nutt. T. & G. Fl. 
202. Erect, 1-3 inches high, branching from the base and compact leaves 
all linear 6-12 lines long: flowers in dense terminal racemes; sepals 
broadly elliptical, about a line long, usually colored: petals but little 
longer: distinctly united at base: seeds thick-lenticular minutely tuber¢ 
