Pink Family 147 



5. ABENARIA L. 



Annual or perennial herbs, with sessile leaves and 

 terminal cymose or capitate, rarely axillary and solitary 

 white flowers. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire or scarcely 

 emarginate, rarely none. Stamens 10. Styles usually 

 3, rarely 2-5. Ovary 1-celled, many-ovuled. Capsule 

 globose or oblong, dehiscent at the apex by as many 

 valves or teeth as there are styles, or twice as many. 

 Seeds reniform-globose or compressed. 



* Valves of the capsule 2-cleJt or 2-toothed. 



1. A. Fendleri Gray. Stems numerous from a thick perennial 

 root, glaucous, glandular-pubescent above, erect, leafy, 10-35 cm. 

 high; basal leaves gramineous, setaceous, ciliolate or smooth, 

 5-10 cm. long, somewhat pungent; cauline becoming reduced, 

 connate and sheathing at the base ; inflorescence dichotomous, 

 few-many-flowered ; sepals lanceolate, alternate, glandular, 4-6 

 mm. long; petals white or pale yellow, obovate, slightly exceed- 

 ing the sepals; capsule 3-4 mm. long. 



Los Angeles, Nevin. 



** Valves of the capsule entire. 



2. A Douglasii Fenzl. Annual, glabrous or sparsely glandu- 

 lar-pubescent and somewhat viscid ; stems much branched, 5-30 

 cm. high; leaves filiform ; peduncles filiform ; flowers numerous, 

 8-10 mm. broad; sepals ovate, thin-margined, obscurely or rather 

 distinctly ribbed; petals obovate, slightly exceeding the calyx; 

 capsule subglobose, somewhat exceeding the sepals; seeds about 

 1.5 mm. broad, reniform, broadly margined, smooth or with fine 

 radiating striae. 



Frequent in the foothill region, in open stony places. March-May. 



3. A. paludicola Robinson. Perennial, glabrous and flaccid, 

 stems several, subsimple, procumbent, rooting at the lower joints, 

 leafy throughout ; leaves linear-lanceolate, acute, 2-3 cm. long, 

 somewhat connate, margins slightly scarious; peduncles solitary 

 in the axils, 2-5 cm. long, spreading or recurved; sepals nerve- 



