CRASSULACE^E. (ORPINE FAMILY.) 171 



Styles 2. Pod inversely heart-shaped or 2-lobed, flattened, very short, 1 -celled, 

 with 2 parietal placentae, 2-valved at the top, many-seeded. Low and small 

 smooth herbs, with tender succulent leaves, and small solitary or leafy-cymed 

 flowers. (Name compounded of xputroy, golden, and <nr\r]v, the spleen, probably 

 from some reputed medicinal qualities.) 



1. C. Americ&num, Schwein. Stems slender, spreading and forking; 

 leaves principally opposite, roundish or somewhat heart-shaped, obscurely cre- 

 nate-lobed ; flowers distant, inconspicuous, nearly sessile (greenish tinged with 

 yellower purple.) Cold wet places: common northward. April, May. 



ORDER 36. CRASSUJLACEJE. (ORPINE FAMILY.) 



Succulent herbs, with perfectly symmetrical flowers : viz. the petals and 

 pistils equalling the sepals in number (3 - 20), and the stamens the same or 

 double their number, technically different from Saxifrageae only in this 

 complete symmetry, and in the carpels being quite distinct from each 

 other, but even this does not hold in two N. American genera. Also, in- 

 stead of a perigynous disk, there are usually little scales on the receptacle, 

 one behind each carpel. Fruit dry and dehiscent; the pods (follicles) 

 opening down the ventral suture, many- rarely few-seeded. Stipules 

 none. Flowers usually cymose, small. Leaves mostly sessile, in Pentho- 

 rum not at all fleshy. 



* Not succulent : the carpels united, forming a 5-celled pod. Transition to the Saxifrage Family. 



1. Penthorum. Sepals 5. Petals none. Stamens 10. Pod 5-beaked, many-seeded. 



* * Leaves, &c., thick and succulent. Carpels distinct. 



2. Tillsea. Sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils 3 or 4. Seeds few or many. 



3. Sedum. Sepals, petals, and pistils 4 or 5. Stamens 10-8. Seeds many. 



1. PENTHORUM, Gronov. DITCH STONE-CROP. 



Sepals 5. Petals rare, if any. Stamens 10. Pistils 5, united below, forming 

 a 5-angled, 5-horned, and 5-celled pod, which opens by the falling off of the 

 beaks, many-seeded. Upright weed-like perennials (not fleshy like the rest of 

 the family), with scattered leaves, and yellowish-green flowers loosely spiked 

 along the upper side of the naked branches of the cyme. (Name from TrcVre, 

 Jive, and opos, a rule or mode, probably from the quinary order of the flower.) 



1. P. sedoides, L. Leaves lanceolate, acute at both ends. Open wet 

 places, everywhere. July - Oct. Parts of the flower rarely in sixes or sevens. 



2. TILLJEA, L. TILLJSA. 



Sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils 3 or 4. Pods 2 - many-seeded. Very 

 small tufted annuals, with opposite entire leaves and axillary flowers. (Named 

 in honor of Michael Angelo Tilli, an early Italian botanist.) 



1. T. Simplex, Nutt. Rooting at the base (l'-2' high); leaves linear- 

 oblong ; flowers solitary, nearly sessile ; calyx half the length of the (greenish- 

 white) petals and the narrow 8-10-seeded pods, the latter with a scale at the 

 base qf each. (T. ascendens, Eaton.) Muddy river-banks, Nantucket to Ma- 

 ryland. July -Sept. 



