Callitrichaceae 237 



Family 48. CALLITRICHACEAE. WATER STAR- 

 WORT FAMILY. 



Herbaceous aquatic or rarely terrestrial plants, with 

 slender or capillary stems, opposite exstipulate entire 

 leaves, and minute perfect monoecious axillary flowers. 

 Perianth none. Bracts 2, sac-like or none. Stamens 1 ; 

 filaments elongated, filiform ; anthers cordate, 2-celled, 

 opening by lateral slits. Pistil 1 ; ovary 4-celled ; 

 ovules 1 in each cell ; styles 2, filiform. Fruit com- 

 pressed, lobed, the lobes more or less winged or keeled 

 on the margins, separating at maturity into 4 flattish 

 1-seeded carpels. Seed anatropous, pendulous ; endo- 

 sperm fleshy ; embryo straight or slightly curved. 



1. CALLITBICHE L. 



Characters of the family, this being the only genus. 



1. C. xnarginata Torr. Usually rooting in the mud, small, 

 with linear-oblanceolate leaves, 4-6 mm. long or less, sometimes 

 floating with slender stems and the upper leaves spatulate ; styles 

 elongated, reflexed, deciduous; fruit on slender spreading pedi- 

 cels, 2-8 mm. long, deeply emarginate above and below, the 

 margins of the thick carpels widely divergent, narrowly winged. 



Soldiers Home, Hasse. Near San Diego in shallow pools on the mesa. 



Family 49. LIMNANTHACEAE. FALSE MERMAID 

 FAMILY. 



Annual herbs with alternate petioled exstipulate pin- 

 nately divided leaves and perfect regular axillary long- 

 peduncled flowers. Sepals 2-5, valvate, persistent. Petals 

 the same number as the sepals, alternating with as many 

 small glands ; the nearly perigynous stamens twice as 

 many, distinct. Carpels as many as sepals and opposite 

 them, 1-ovuled, nearly distinct ; the single style slender, 



