136 NYCTAGINACEAE. 



167. ABRONIA. 



Annual or perennial herbs, with opposite petioled thick entire 

 leaves; stems erect or prostrate; flowers sessile, conspicuous; 

 calyx elongated, with 5 obcordate lobes; stamens 3-5, unequal, 

 on the calyx- tube; style filiform; fruit dry, with 1-5 net- veined 

 wings. 



Flowers rose-colored; wings of the fruit solid. A. acutalata. 



Flowers yellow; wings of the fruit hollow. A. latifolia. 



Abronia acutalata Standley. Stems prostrate; leaves oblong or ovate, 

 obtuse, 2-4 cm. long, slender- petioled; involucral bracts narrowly lanceolate; 

 flowers rose-pink; wings of the fruit broad, thin, acute, prolonged beyond the 

 body. 



Along the ocean beach. Closely allied to A. umbellata Lam. to which our 

 plant has usually been referred. 



Abronia latifolia Esch. Prostrate, sticky-pubescent; root thick and fleshy; 

 leaves ovate or reniform, thick, 2-4 cm. long; involucral bracts ovate to or- 

 bicular; flowers bright yellow. 



Along the seashore. Herbage readily eaten by hogs and cows. 



Family 37. AIZOACEAE. CARPET WEED FAMILY. 

 Soft herbs, sometimes fleshy or succulent; leaves whorled or 

 opposite; stipules wanting; flowers small, regular, perfect, soli- 

 tary, cymose or glomerate; calyx 4-5-cleft or parted; petals and 

 stamens sometimes numerous, but petals often wanting; ovary 

 usually free from the calyx, 2-several-celled ; ovules numerous in 

 each cell (in ours) ; fruit a capsule; endosperm scanty or copious. 



168. MOLLUGO. CARPET WEED. 



Mostly annual, much branched herbs; leaves whorled, some- 

 times basal or alternate; stipules scarious, membranaceous, 

 deciduous; flowers small, whitish, cymose or axillary; sepals 5, 

 white inside, scarious-margined, persistent; petals none; stamens 

 hypogynous, 3 and alternate with the 3 cells of the ovary or 5 

 and alternate with the sepals; ovary and capsule usually 3-celled. 



Mollugo verticillata L. Carpet Weed. Annual, glabrous throughout, 

 prostrate; stem slender, 10-30 cm. long, branched; leaves spatulate or oblance- 

 olate, acute or obtuse, entire, narrowed at the sessile base, 1-2 cm. long, 3-8 

 in a whorl; flowers small, solitary in the axils, on pedicels as long or longer; 

 sepals oblong, shorter than the ovoid capsules; seeds shining, brown, curved. 



On river banks, probably in our limits; common east of the Cascade 

 Mountains. 



Family 38. PORTULACACEAE. PURSLANE FAMILY. 

 Annual or perennial usually succulent herbs; leaves entire, 

 alternate or opposite; flowers regular, perfect; sepals 2 or 4-8; 



