Frankenia. CARYOPHYLLACE.E. 61 



leaves thickish, obovate to lineaf-oblanceolate, 3 to 6 lines long, the margin revo- 

 lute : calyx 3 lines long, linear, very strongly furrowed, the lobes short and acute : 

 petals exserted 1 to 1^ lines, the blade oblong, erose at the summit, the appendage 

 bifid : stamens 4 to 7 : style 3-cleft : capsule linear, angled, shorter than the calyx : 

 seeds numerous. Linna3a, i. 35 ; Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. 36, t. 5. 



Sea-shore from San Francisco to San Diego and southward, and eastward in the desert to Ari- 

 zona and S. Nevada. 



F. PALMERI, Watson, collected by Dr. E. Palmer on the eastern side of Lower California, is a 

 rather slender shrub, a foot high, the numerous fascicled leaves only 1 or 2 lines long, thick 

 and strongly revolute, canescent with a white encrustation : calyx 1^ lines long : petals linear, a 

 little exserted : stamens 4 : style bifid : capsule 2-seeded. Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 124. 



F. JAMESII, Torr. (Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 622), is a more eastern species, of Colorado and 

 New Mexico, with the habit of F. yrandifolia, but more pubescent, leaves narrower and with 

 revolute margins, flowers larger, and ovary 3-ovuled. 



ORDER XIV. CARYOPHYLLACE^. 



Herbs, sometimes suffrutescent at base, bland and inert, with regular and mostly 

 perfect flowers, persistent calyx, its parts and the petals 4 or 5 and imbricated or 

 the latter sometimes convolute in the bud, the distinct stamens commonly twice as 

 many as the petals (when of the same number alternate with them, sometimes 

 fewer), ovary 1-celled with a free central placenta, bearing many or several campylo- 

 tropous ovules ; the reniform seeds with a slender embryo coiled around the outside 

 of farinaceous albumen. Stems usually swollen at the nodes. Leaves often 

 united at the base by a transverse line, in one group with interposed scarious stip- 

 ules. Petals sometimes wanting. Stamens mostly hypogynous around an annular 

 disk, sometimes perigynous by its cohesion with the base of the calyx. Styles 2 to 

 5, mostly distinct, and with stigma running down the inner face, in the last genera 

 more or less united into one. Fruit a capsule opening by valves, or by teeth at the 

 summit. Flowers terminal or in the forks, or in cymes. 



A large order, found in every part of the world, but abounding in temperate and frigid regions, 

 of a thousand or more species, under about 35 genera, of no important properties or uses, except 

 that many are cultivated for ornament, such especially as Pinks, Lychnis, &c. Much more largely 

 represented in Western North America than upon the Atlantic side. 



TRIBE I. SILENE/E. Sepals united into a 4 - 5-toothed or lobed calyx. Petals commonly 

 with an appendage (crown) on the base of the blade within, narrowed below into a con- 

 spicuous claw ; these and the stamens borne on a stipe under the ovary. Styles distinct. 

 Capsule dehiscent at the summit by as many or twice as many teeth as styles. Stipules 

 none. Flowers comparatively large. 



1. Silene. Styles 3. (LYCHNIS, with 4 or 5 styles, not yet found in California.) 



TRIBE II. ALSINE^E. Sepals distinct to the base or nearly so. Petals without crown or 

 distinct claw, inserted with the stamens on the margin of the hypogynous or sometimes 

 perigynous disk under the sessile ovary, not rarely wanting or inconspicuous. 



* Stipules none. 



2. Cerastium. Capsule cylindric, dehiscent with twice as many equal teeth as styles : petals 



emarginate or bifid : styles 5, rarely 3 or 4, opposite to as many sepals. 



3. Stellaiia. Capsule globose to oblong, with as many valves as styles, bifid or 2-parted : petals 



bifid : styles 3 (rarely 2, 4, or 5), opposite to as many sepals. 



4. Arenaria. Petals entire or wanting : styles 3 (rarely 2, 4, or 5), opposite to as many sepals : 



capsule globose to oblong, with as many valves as styles, these entire or bifid or 2-parted. 



5. Sagina. Petals entire or wanting : styles as many as the sepals, alternate with them and 



with the entire valves of the capsule. 



