278 PORTULACACE^ Calyptridium. 



"Towins as an armnal or biennial; first cc>lL bv Fr/mont. The most marked snbalpine 

 form is 



Var. caudicifera. Gray. Branching from the crown, the candex-like branches 

 exten-iing for a year or more, and the leaves below dying away, at leogth the rvwnlate tnfts 

 terminated by soliiary naked scapes of an inch or two in length bearing the globular glom- 

 erate inflorescence : tap-root probably not perennial : leaves short and small — Gray in 

 Panerson, Check-list X. Am PL ^1S92) 14.^ — High moontains, from C^regon and Washing- 

 ton to Wyoming. 



9. CALiYPTRlDIUM. Xutt. (A kind of dimiiiutive of (coXiVrpo, a cov- 

 eriiii: or calypire. Gt-nus said to have " petals united into a minute diaphanous 

 conical corolla, slightly 3-tooihed at apex, soon detached from the base and car- 

 ried upon the summit of the elongated capsule." But, in fact, the petals are quite 

 distinct, and they close over each other and over the pistil after the ephemeral 

 anthesis. and are carried up as aforesaid, just as they :ire in Claytonia and most 

 other Portulacacece .') — Low or depressed and succulent winter annuals (of W. 

 Xorth America), branched from the base, with alternate spatulate leaves, and 

 mostlv secund insignilicant flowers with very small (white i petals, but accrescent 

 and more or less colored and scarious calyx. — Nuti. in Torr. & Gray, FL L 198 

 (excl. svn. Talinum monandrum. which is Monocosmt'a, Fen2L with inaccrescent 

 calyx enclosing utricular fruit > ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. L 159 ; Wats. Bot. King 

 Exp. U ; Brew. & Wats. Bot, Calif. L 78 ; Gray, Proe. Am. Acad. xxii. 284, with 

 new character. 



* Petals 4 : stamens in the same species 1 , 2, or 3, when solitary opposite a petal : capsule 

 little or not at all surpassing the fructiferous calyx: seeds acme-margined. Coimects 

 with Sprcu^ea .' 



C. quadripetaltim, Watsos. a span high : leaves oblong-spamlate. the larger 2 inches 

 k-nj including tapering base and petiole : dowers' crowded as if imbricate-J in a naked and 

 fecund scorpioid-spiciforra inflorescence : sepals r^und-reniform. plane, at marunry fully 3 

 lines in diameter, white-scaiious and rose-tinged with greenish centre : petals comparatively 

 large : style very short : capsule oblong-oval, 10-20-seeded, not surpassing the fmctifen.>us 

 sepals. — Proc- Am. Aca<l. sx. 356.- — Lake Co., California, Torre y . 1 S65 ) ; and along head- 

 warers of Eel River, in same county. Rattan •1SS4)-' Has the sepals of Sprapmea. 



C. Parryi, Gray. Depressed. smaU-leaved : leaves (only haK inch long) spaxnlate or the 

 rceulate radical ones cuneate-obovate with long tapering base : spikes in age secund and 

 scorpioid. but often with short few-flowered clusters : fructiferous sepals orbicular or oval, 

 not emarginate at base, less complanate. herbace'sus with narrow white mai^n. one or two 

 lines Ion?, a little shorter than the oblons capsule : style half the length of the ovoid ovary. 

 — I'roc. Am. Acad, xxii. 2S5- — Mountains of San Bernardino Co., California, in Bear 

 Valley, Parry (lST6,distrib. as C. rosfum, var. robustrnm). Parisi. 1SS5. 



* * Petals 2 or 3 : stamen one, alternate with the petals : sepals moderately accrescent, 

 green-herbaceous with scarious margin: seeds more turgid, obtuse-edged: inflorescence 

 looser and more paniculate, the short dusters hardly scorpioid : leaves spatulate with 

 long tapering base, the larger inch or more long. 



C. rosetun, Watsox. An inch to a span high, diffuse : sepals orbicular, plane, becoming 

 2 or 3 lines in diameter, the broad scarious margin white or tinged with rose : petals only 

 2 and small : style very short. 2-parted and with subcapitate stigmas : capsule ovate-oblung, 

 not surpassing the calyx, 6-12-*eded. — Bot. King Exp. 44, t. 6. f. 6-S : Brew, t Wats. 



1 Add sjTi. & multicfps, HoweE, Erythea. L -59. As striking as the eitreme form of this vajietr 

 may be, it appears to pass by slight gradations into the typical form of the species. 



* AHd svn. C. tetrapetalam, Greene. FL Francis. 182." 

 « Also in Sonoma Co., ace. to Greene. 



