Flora of the Palouse Region 67 



late, spiny-pointed, much exceeding the sepals: sepals 3, oblong-lanceolate, 

 membranous. A common weed in grain fields. 



A. blitoides Wats. Very similar to A. graecizans but the branches pros- 

 trate, 30-60 cm. long: bracts little longer than the 3-5 sepals. Apparently 

 native, common. 



Family 27. FICOIDEAE. 



Soft herbs, often fleshy or succulent: leaves opposite or 

 whorled; stipules scariousor wanting: flowers small, regular, per- 

 fect, solitary, cymose or glomerate: calyx 4-5-cleft or parted: petals 

 small or wanting: stamens perigynous: ovary usually free from 

 the calyx, 3-5-celled; ovules numerous in each cell (in ours): fruit 

 a capsule: endosperm scanty or copious. 



100. MOLLUGO. 



Mostly annual, much branched herbs: leaves whorled, some- 

 times basal or alternate; stipules scarious, membranous, deciduous: 

 flowers small, whitish, cymose or axillary: sepals 5, white inside, 

 scarious-margined, persistent: petals none: stamens hypogynous, 

 3 and alternate with the 3 cells of the ovary or 5 and alternate with 

 the sepals: ovary and capsule usually 3-celled. 



M. verticillata L. Annual, glabrous throughout, prostrate: stem slender, 

 10-30 cm. long, branched: leaves spatulate or oblanceolate, acute or obtuse, 

 entire, narrowed at the sessile base, 1-2 cm. long, 3-8 in a whorl: flowers 

 small, solitary in the axils, on pedicels as long or longer: sepals oblong, 

 shorter than the ovoid capsules: seeds shining, brown, curved. Common on 

 the sandy banks of Snake River. 



Family 28. PORTULACACEAE. 



Annual or perennial herbs, generally succulent: leaves entire, 

 alternate or opposite: flowers regular, perfect, unsymmetrical: 

 sepals 2: petals 4 or 5, hypogynous, early withering: stamens as 

 many as or more numerous than the petals and adherent to their 

 bases: ovary 1 -celled: ovules few to many: endosperm mealy. 



Calyx-tube adnate at least to the lower half of the ovary. 103. portulaca. 

 Calyx free from the ovary. 



Petals 5, free, equal: stamens 5: ovules about 6. 101. CLAYTOxia. 



Petals 5 or fewer, sometimes coherent at the base, usually somewhat 

 unequal: stamens 3-5: ovules mostly 3. 102. montia. 



101. CLAYTOXIA. 



Low and very glabrous moderately succulent perennials, from 

 a corm or thickened rootstock: leaves opposite (rarely alternate): 

 flowers in loose terminal or axillary racemes, lasting more than 

 one day: sepals 2, persistent: petals 5, equal: stamens 5: ovules 

 few, about 6. 



