MACLOSKIE : CARYOPHYLLACE.-E. 397 



Annuals or perennials, spreading-decumbent, branched herbs, with 

 small, sessile leaves, and small, dry stipitles, and small, green flowers in 

 dense, axillary clusters, sessile or pediceled. 



Species 15, in Mediterr. countries and Canaries. 



HERNIARIA HIRSUTA L. 



Prostrate, hirsute herb; leaves ovate-oblong; glomerules sessile, few- 

 flowered. 



(Europe) ; N. Patagon., by Rio Negro near Carmen. 



13. ACANTHONYCHIA Rohrb. (Pentaccena Bartl.) 

 Small, cespitose, much branching herbs, with alternate, crowded, sub- 

 ulate-setaceous leaves, having large, acuminate, silvery stipules and 

 inconspicuous sessile flowers. Calyx-segments ending in stout, rigid 

 spines, or 2 of them smaller. Stamens 3-5, the filaments broad at base, 

 with minute staminodes. Stigmas 2, sessile. 



Species few, Chili to Mexico, and i in California. 



A. RAMOSISSIMA Rohrb. (Weinm.) incl. A. polycnemoides (Rohrb.). 



Stem diffuse, branching. Leaves crowded, terete, glabrous, their apex 

 pungent. Flowers axillary, few. Fruit I -seeded. 



(Argent.) ; Patagon. ; "on dry spots from Bahia Blanca to N. Patagon. 

 and the foot of the Cordilleras. Acne of the Indians. Its infusion is 

 used as a stomachic." J. Ball. By Golfo de San Jorge; Rio Gallegos; 

 R. Sta. Cruz. 



"14. .PHILIPPIELLA Speg. 



Leaves glabrous, opposite, stipulate. Flowers apical, sessile, all alike. 

 Calyx 4-cleft; the sepals decussate, imbricate. Staminodes 4, scale-like, 

 opposite the sepals. Fertile stamens 4, alternate with the sepals. Ovary 

 i -celled, i-ovuled. Fruit utriculariform, dehiscing irregularly. Seed 

 suborbicular, compressed. Embryo annular. 



Species only i, viz. : 



P. PATAGONICA Speg. 



Botryose-ramulose, densely pulvinate. Leaves sessile, ovate-obtuse, 

 fleshy, imbricating, 4-ranked. Stipules ovate, connate, obtuse, large. 

 Flowers terminal on branches, bractless, green, glabrous. Stamens in- 

 cluded, white. Style 2-lobed. Calyx persistent, not accrescent. 



