Spraguea. PORTULACACE^E. ^ 



acutish : petals 2 to 4 lines long, pale rose-color. Pacif. E. Rep. iv. 70. C. lance- 

 olata, Pursh, Fl. 175, chiefly; Gray, in Am. Jour. Sci. xxxiii. 406. C. Caroliniana, 

 var. lanceolata, Watson, Bot. King Exp. 42. 



Subalpine and alpine in the Sierra Nevada (Cisco, Kellogg), northward to the British boundary, 

 and east to Colorado. The typical form of the Atlantic States has leaves with slender petioles. 



8. C. triphylla, Watson. A similar species, slender, the cauline leaves 3 in a 

 whorl, or rarely 2, narrowly linear : raceme compound, pedunculate ; the pedicels 

 each with a small scarious bract : sepals rounded, obtuse : petals 2 lines long. 

 Proc. Am. Acad. x. 345. 



In the Sierra Nevada : Yosemite Valley (Gray) ; above Cisco (Watson, Kellogg) ; Sierra Co., 

 Lemmon, and probably frequent. 



9. C. umbellata, Watson. Very low and fleshy : cauline leaves two, opposite, 

 orbicular or rhomboidal to oblong-ovate, 4 to 9 lines long, on slender petioles : 

 flowers 3 to 5 in a sessile umbel shorter than the leaves : petals 3 to 4 lines long, a 

 little exceeding the rounded obtuse sepals. Bot. King Exp. 43, t. 6. 



On Mt. Davidson and in Truckee Pass, Nevada ( Watson) ; near Steamboat Springs, W. Nevada, 

 Mann. Probably in northeastern California. 



* % * Perennial, with a thickened caudex. 



10. C. Nevadensis, Watson. Apparently propagating by runners, the leaves 

 and scapes clustered at the summit of a rather slender rootstock : leaves orbicular 

 or obovate, an inch or less in diameter, abruptly attenuate into a very slender peti- 

 ole : scapes about equalling the leaves, with a pair of sessile oblong-ovate leaflets, 4 

 to 8 lines long : flowers umbellately fascicled or in 2 or 3 very short racemes : sepals 

 ovate-oblong, acute : petals broadly spatulate, 4 lines long, with narrow claws. 



Northern Sierra Nevada, Lemmon. Nearest G. sarmentosa, Meyer, of Alaska, a more slender 

 species, with long racemes, rounded sepals, and -petals broad at base. C. arctica, of Alaska, &c., 

 and C. megarrhiza of the Kocky Mountains have decidedly fusiform roots. 



4. MONTIA, Linn. 



Sepals 2, ovate, persistent, herbaceous. Petals 5, united at base, 3 somewhat 

 smaller. Stamens 3, rarely more, on the tube of the corolla. Ovary free, 3-ovuled : 

 style 3-cleft, very short. Capsule 3-valved, 3-seeded. Seeds black, dull, tuber- 

 culate, rarely smoothish and shining. A small branching glabrous succulent annual ; 

 with opposite leaves, and small axillary or racemose flowers. A single species. 



1. M. fontana, Linn. Stems procumbent or ascending, 1 to 3 inches long : 

 leaves spatulate to linear-oblanceolate, 3 to 9 lines long : flowers a line long or less : 

 capsule globose. Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 202. M. fontana & lamprosperma, Cham, 

 in Linntea, vi. 565, t. 7. 



Wet places near San Francisco, and in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, and northward to 

 Behring Straits ; Greenland. Common in Europe, S. America, &c. Usually readily distinguished 

 from Claytonia by the opaque seed. 



5. SPRAGUEA, Torr. 



Sepals 2, orbicular-cordate, scarious-hyaline, persistent. Petals 4. Stamens 3. 

 Ovary 8-10-ovuled: style long, bifid at the apex. Capsule 2-valved, membrana- 

 ceous. Seeds black and shining. A glabrous biennial herb ; with mostly radical 

 fleshy leaves, and ephemeral flowers in dense scorpioid spikes umbellate-clustered 

 on a scape-like peduncle. 



1. S. umbellata, Torr. Stems several from a thickened root, simple, erect or 

 ascending, 2 to 12 inches high : radical leaves spatulate or oblanceolate, on thick 



