CARYOPHYLLE^. 35 



7. ALSItfELLA, Dillen. (PEABLWORT). Diminutive herbs with 

 subulate or filiform exstipulate leaves, and minute long-pedicelled often 

 apetalous flowers. Sepals 4 or 5, commonly rotate-spreading in fruit. 

 Petals when present as many, entire or emarginate. Styles 4 or 5. Cap- 

 sule 1-celled, oc -seeded, dehiscent to the base into as many entire valves 

 as there are styles: the valves alternate with the sepals. 



1. A. occidentalis (Wats.), Greene. Annual, glabrous or nearly so, 

 almost capillary, decumbent at base or ascending, 1 6 in. high: leaves 

 in pairs (none fascicled), slightly connate, acute, %% in. long: fl. 

 5-merous, on long pedicels, these erect in fruit: sepals 1 line long: petals 

 nearly as long: stamens 10: capsule exceeding the calyx. Very common. 

 March May. 



2. A. crassicaulis (Wats.), Greene. Perennial, stoutish and succulent, 

 decumbent: leaves broadly linear, acute, 26 lines long, scarious and 

 connate at base: pedicels 48 lines long; fl. erect or nodding, large, 

 the sepals more than a line long.; petals smaller: styles very short: 

 capsule ovate, scarcely exserted from the closed fruiting calyx. A little 

 known species found at Dillon's Beach, Marin Co. 



8. SPERGrULA, Dodoens (COBN-SPUBBEY). Herbs with linear and 

 apparently whorled leaves; the opposite pair (subtended by a pair of 

 scarious stipular scales) being augmented by several crowded and spread- 

 ing fascicled ones of nearly their own size which along with them seem 

 to form a verticil. Flowers perfectly symmetrical (stamens 10 or 5); the 

 5 styles alternate with the sepals, the 5 valves of the capsule opposite the 

 sepals. Petals entire. Seeds acutely margined or winged. 



1. S. ABVENSIS, L. Glabrous or pilose-pubescent and slightly clammy, 

 12 ft. high, simple or with many decumbent basal branches: leaves 

 almost filiform, 1 2 in. long.: cyme terminal, ample, dichotomous, the 

 long pedicels nodding after flowering, but erect in flower and again when 

 the capsule is mature : sepals oblong or ovate, 2 3 lines long, the white 

 petals rather long, unfolding only in sunshine: capsule ovoid: seeds 

 acutely margined. In fields and by waysides everywhere. Jan. Sept. 



9. TISSA, Adanson (SAND SPUBBEY). More or less succulent herbs 

 of maritime districts or subsaline plains inland. Leaves linear or sub- 

 ulate, with scarious ; stipules. Flowers arranged dichotomously or 

 unilaterally. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire (sometimes fewer than 5 or even 

 0). Stamens 210. Styles 3, rarely 5. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds 

 winged or wingless. Embryo annular. 



* Perennials with fusiform fleshy roots. 

 J r Internodes not short (about 1 in.); fascicled leaves few. 



1. T. macrotheca (Hornem.), Britt. Stems ascending, stoutish, 

 terete, often 1 ft. high; whole herbage deep green and rather densely 



