72 ILLECEBRACE.E. Lasflingia. 



style very short or none. Capsule 3-valved, several-seeded. Low rigid dichoto- 

 mous annuals ; leaves subulate, with adnate and connate setaceous stipules ; flowers 

 small, sessile in the axils. 



A genus of perhaps five species, of the Mediterranean region and Central Asia, with the follow- 

 ing from North America. 



1. L. squarrosa, Nutt. Glandular-pubescent, much branched, the stems 2 to 

 6 inches long : leaves and sepals subulate- setaceous, rigid and squarrose, the leaves 

 2 or 3 lines long, exceeding the flowers : capsule" triangular, at length exserted, 

 many-seeded. Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 174 ; Gray, Gen. 111. ii. 24, t. 106. L. Texana, 

 Hook. Ic. PL t. 285. 

 San Diego (Nuttall), and eastward to Texas. 



ORDER XV. ILLECEBRACE^I. 



Distinguished from the scarious-stipulate Caryophyllacece only by the solitary or 

 sometimes geminate ovules, undivided or 2-cleft style, and one-seeded utricular or 

 akene-like fruit ; the petals wholly wanting or reduced to mere filaments ; these 

 and the stamens usually more perigynous. Closely related on the other hand to 

 Amarantacece and other apetalous orders. Here represented by only two plants, but 

 several species of other genera are found in the Atlantic States. 



1. Pentacaena. Calyx of 5 unequal awn-tipped sepals : stamens inserted on their base. 



2. Achyronychia. Calyx 5-cleft, with a 10-nerved tube and blunt silvery-scarious lobes : sta- 



mens inserted on the throat. 



1. PENTACJENA, Bartling. 



Sepals 5, nearly distinct, hooded, unequal, terminating in a short divergent spine, 

 the inner more shortly awned. Petals minute, scale-like. Stamens 3 to 5, inserted 

 at the base of the sepals; staminodia none. Style very short, bifid. Utricle 

 included in the rigid connivent calyx. Low densely tufted perennials ; leaves subu- 

 late, densely crowded on the branches; stipules dry and silvery; flowers sessile, 

 clustered in the axils. 



A genus of 2 or 3 species, of S. America and Mexico, only one reaching our western coast. 



1. P. ramosissima, Hook. & Am. Prostrate and matted, the stem 2 to 18 

 inches long, somewhat woolly : leaves 3 to 5 lines long, pungently awned, at length 

 recurved ; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than the leaves, 1 -nerved : calyx- 

 tube nearly a line long, the divergent outer lobes twice longer : stamens usually 5 : 

 stigmas subsessile : utricle apiculate. Hook. Bot. Misc. iii. 338. Paronychia 

 ramosissima, DC. Paronych. 12, t. 4; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 172. Acanthonychia 

 ramosissima, Eohrb. in Mart. Fl. Bras, xiv. 2 249, t. 56. 



On the sea-coast from Oregon to Southern California and Mexico, forming large patches on the 

 drifting sands about San Francisco. Also on the South American coast from Chili to Patagonia, 

 and in S. Brazil. 



2. ACHYRONYCHIA, Torr. & Gray. 



Calyx 5-cleft, persistent, the turbinate 10-nerved tube at length cylindrical and 

 coriaceous ; lobes oval, obtuse, thickened at base, silvery-scarious above and nerve- 

 less. Petals none. Filaments or staminodia 1 5, in one row at the summit of the 

 tube, filiform, only 1 or 2 antheriferous. Style short, bifid. Ovules 2, on very- 

 short funicles, one abortive. Utricle thin, included. Seed oblong-pyriform. A 



