MOLLUGO. FICOIDE#. 241 
M. pumila Nutt. T. & G. Fl. i, 535. Stems 8-10 in. high, rough with 
a minute barbed pubescence, whitish branching towards the summit; 
leaves lanceolate, sinuate toothed or pinnatifid, the lower ones somewhat 
petioled, the upper sessile ; flowers solitary or three together, terminating 
the loose flowering branches, slightly pedicilate, with] or 2 linear-setaceous 
bracts at the base; petals 10, lanceolate, acute, spreading, longer than the 
lanceolate-subulate calyx-lobes, the inner ones smaller; stamens very 
numerous, the outer filaments flat and somewhat dilated; capsule clavate- 
cylindrical, 3-valved ; seeds numerous winged. Colorado, perhaps Idaho. 
OrpER XLI. FICOIDEA Juss. 
Succulent herbs or shrubs with plain triquetrous, or terete, 
leaves without stipules. Calyx-tube coherent to the ovary, the 
lobes usually 5, unequal. Petals very many and linear, or none. 
Stamens 5-many, with slender filaments, inserted on the calyx- 
tube. Styles 4-20. Fruit 4-20-celled, dehiscent stellately 
across the summit or circumscissile or indehiscent. Seeds 
usually numerous and minute with mealy albumen. » 
1 MOLLUGO L. Sp. 89. 
-Low and much branched glabrous annuals, with linear to obo- 
vate-spatulate entire opposite and apparently verticillate leaves 
and axillary flowers. Calyx 5-cleft nearly to the base, lobes 
herbaceous, membranaceously margined. Petals none. Stamens 
3 or 5, rarely twice’ as many, hypogynous. Styles 3. Capsule 
free, thin, membranaceous 3+5-celled, loculicidally 3-5-valved ; 
the partitions breaking away from the persistent central placenta. 
Seeds several in each cell, longitudinally sulcate on the back. 
M. verticillata L. 1.c. Prostrate slender stems 1-6 inches long; 
leaves spatulate to linear-oblanceolate, an inch long or less; pedicels um- 
bellately fascicled at the nodes; slender, 2-3 lines long; sepals and ob- 
long-ovoid capsule about a line and a half long; seeds reniform, shining. 
Brit. Columbia to California and across the continent. 
OrpeR XLII... CACTACEA. Lindl. Nat. Syst. ed. 2, 53. : 
Succulent spiny plants with usually angular or 2-edged leaf- 
like stems without leaves, or these represented by fleshy pro- 
cesses or spines and sessile flowers. Bénals numerous usually 
indefinite and confounded with the petals, imbricated either 
coherent with and crowning the ovary or covering its whole 
surface. Petals numerous, usually indefinite in several series, 
arising from the orifice of the calyx. Stamens indefinite cohering 
more or less with the petals and sepals; filaments long filiform; 
anthers ovate, versatile. Ovary fleshy coherent with the calyx 
1-celled with numerous parietal placente: ovules indefinite, 
styles united into a long tube or column; stigmas as many as 
the placents. Fruit succulent, 1-celled, many seeded. Seeds 
ovate or obovate anatropous without albumen. | 
