248 CARYOPHYLLACEiE. Safflna. 



with filiform stems and subulate or filiform leaves. — Syst. Nat, ed. 1, & Gen. no. 

 336; DC. Prodr. i. 389 ; Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. v. t. 200, 201 ; Gray, Gen. 

 111. ii. 29, t. 109. — About a dozen species (chiefly of the temperate and frigid 

 parts of the northern hemisphere) in much need of a general revision, the iden- 

 tity and distinctness of several Old World species being so doubtful that it is 

 impossible to correlate with them the common forms of America. 



* Very slender, 2 to 5 inches high : the ahnost capilhiry steins several to many, subsimjjle 

 from near tlie l)ase, usually several-flowered ; the lowest flowers distinctly axillary : leaves 

 nearly filiform but flattened above, not proliferous in the upper axils nor forming sterile 

 rosettes ; the basal rosette seldom persisting : flowers small, 4-5-parted. 



S. apetala, Ard. Commonly glandular-pubescent: stems not numerous, ascending or 

 nearly erect; leaves 1^ to 3 or 4 lines in length, scarcely flat: pedicels straight: flowers 

 normally 4-parted : petals minute and obovate or more often altogether wanting. — Animad. 

 Alt. 22, t. 8; L. Mant. ii. .559 ; Fenzl in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i. 338; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 177; 

 Reichenb. 1. c. t. 200. S. procumbeiis, var., Benth. Brit. Fl. 120. — Middle Atlantic States 

 near the coast and doubtfully indigenous ; Amherst, Mass., Jesitji, to E. Pennsylvania, Porter, 

 New Jersey, C. E. Smith, and formerly near Washington, 1).C. (ace. to Ward). A form 

 with elongated capillary steins is abundant in grassy situations near Hewitt's, Bergen Co., 

 N. J., Britton; also at Berkeley, Calif., Blankiuship. Specimens from Labrador, coll. Allen, 

 referred to S. apetala, are probably only a stunted form of 5. prncumbetis. Var. nAKitAxA, 

 Fenzl (in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i. 338), with leaves distinctly ciliated at the base, has been found 

 (probably introduced) at Auburn, California, Mrs. Ames. Alsinella ciliata, Greene, from 

 near lone, Calif., which is ambiguously characterized in the Fl. Francis. 126, as a very 

 slender and diffuse plant of compact habit, does not differ in its described characters from 

 this. (Eu., Asia, &c.) 



S. decumbens, Torr. & Gray. Annual, quite smooth or with the younger parts slightly 

 glandular : stems .several, decumbent or sub-erect, 2 to 5 inches high, subsimple : the filiform 

 straight peduncles exceeding the narrowly linear very acute leaves : flowers normally 5- 

 parted: calyx appressed even in fruit, obtusish but not rounded at the base, two tiiirds the 

 length of the valves of the capsule : petals (sometimes only 1 to 3 and rudimentary) scarcely 

 equalling the sepals: stamens 3 to 10. — Fl. i. 177. ^. procumbens, Pursh, Fl. i. 119. 

 5. Elliottii, Fenzl in Gray, Man. ed. 2, 61. S. subulafa, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 178, not Wimm. 

 ? Spergula nodosa, Walt. Car. 142. <S\ saginoides, Michx. Fl. i. 276, not L. S. decumbens. 

 Ell. sic. i. 523, S. subulata. Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 93. — Dry sandy ground. New England 

 to Great Plains of Brit. America, Macoun, southward to Florida and Texas ; fl. March to 

 June. Var. S.MfTHii, Watson (Bibl. Index, 105; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 89; 

 S. subulata, var. Smithii, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 95), is a more slender nearly or quite apetalous 

 form, found in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, C. E. Smith, Camden, Parker, liichmond 

 Co., N. Y. (ace. to Hollick & Britton), S. E. Kentucky (ace. to Kearney), and probably else- 

 where with and poorly di.stinguished from the type. 



S. OCCidentalis, Watson. Annual, glabrous, with habit and foliage of the preceding 

 species, but with longer pedicels (usually 7 to 10 or 12 lines in length) and larger also 

 5-parted flowers : capsule If lines in length : calyx rounded at the base. — Proc. Am. Acad, 

 X. 344. S. procumbevs, Boland. Cat. 6 ; and perhaps Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exped. 242. aS. Lin- 

 na'i. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 378. Alsinella occidentalis, Greene, Fl. Francis. 125. — Low 

 grounds and salt marshes of the coast, Vancouver Lsl. to S. California; common; fl. spring. 

 The western equivalent of S. decumbens and possibly intergrading with that species. 



* * Flowering stems of lateral origin, spreading, 1 to 6 inches in length, procumbent ; the 

 unprolonged terminal axis bearing, close to the ground, a more or less persistent tuft or 

 rosette of leaves : flowers normally 4-parted. 



S. procumbens, L. Matted: the numerous procumbent leafy stems H to 4 inches in 

 length : leaves smooth or ciliate, narrowly linear, obtusish and mucronate : pedicels filiform, 

 elongated, nodding at the summit during anthesis: petals considerably shorter than the 

 sepals; the latter spreading in fruit. —Spec. i. 128; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 177. — Moist rocks, 



