Arenaria. CARYOPHYLLACE^E. gg 



§ 1. The 3 valves of the ccqisule 1-cleft or parted : seeds not appendaged at the hilum: 

 cesjiitose perennials, mostly scarious-bracted. — Arenaria proper. 



1. A. congesta, Nutt. Smooth, glaucous, 4 to 12 inches high: leaves very 

 narrowly subulate, scabrous on the margin, often pungent, the lower 1 to 2£ inches 

 long, the cauline £ to 1 inch long : flowers in 1 to 3 dense subumbellate fascicles, 

 with large dilated membranous bracts : sepals ovate-oblong, strongly concave, scari- 

 ously margined, obscurely 3-nerved, 1£ to 2^ lines long, acute : petals narrowly 

 oblong, nearly twice as long as the calyx : stigmas capitellate : capsule ecpialling the 

 calyx. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 178; Watson, Eot. King Exp. 39. Brewerina suffru- 

 tescens, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 620. 



Var. subcongesta, Watson. Flowers less densely fascicled and somewhat 

 cymose. — A. Fendleri, var. subcongesta, Watson in Bot. King Exp. 40. 



In the mountains from Washington Territory to Colorado ; at Summit in the Sierra Nevada 

 (Bolander) ; above Carson City, Anderson. The variety in the northern Sierra Nevada (Lcmmon), 

 and eastward. The typical form has the flowers nearly sessile in close heads. Brewerina suf- 

 frulescens, Gray, is a form somewhat woody at base and with the flowers upon longer nearly equal 

 pedicels. The remarkable character of capitellate or somewhat capitellate stigmas it has in com- 

 mon with A. Fendleri, and they are also found in A. capillaris and A. Franklinii. 



2. A. capillaris, Poir. More or less glandular-pubescent above, erect, 3 to 12 

 inches high : leaves linear-subulate, £ to 2 inches long, pungent ; the cauline few, 

 short and erect : flowers few, in an open cyme ; bracts small, lanceolate : sepals 

 ovate, acute, H to 2 lines long, 3-nerved, membranously margined : petals half 

 longer : capsule somewhat exceeding the calyx. — Including A. nardifolia, Ledeb. 

 (Hook. Fl. i. 98, t. 32), and some other Asiatic forms. A. formosa, Torr. Eot. 

 Wilkes Exp. 243 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 39. 



In the mountains from the British boundary southward ; Donner Pass (Torraj) ; Silver Moun- 

 tain, at 11,000 feet altitude, Brewer. The more typical glabrous form seems not to occur here. 



3. A. pungens, Nutt. Pubescent throughout, cespitose, 2 to 3 inches high : 

 leaves linear-subulate, 3 to 5 lines long, pungent, crowded : flowers in an open 

 cyme, leafy-bracted : sepals lanceolate, acuminate, pungent, lh to 3 lines long, rather 

 obscurely 3-nerved : petals about equalling the calyx : the capsule shorter : seeds 

 very few, smooth. — Torr. ife Gray, Fl. i. 179; Watson, 1. c. 



In the Sierra Nevada, above the Big Tree Grove (Bolander) ; Silver Mountain, at 11,000 feet 

 (Brewer) ; above Carson City (And.crsmt) ; ami eastward to Colorado. 



A. Franklinii, Dough, is of similar habit, but stouter and less pubescent ; stems leafy at base : 

 flowers fascicled in a rather close cyme : sepals 3 to 5 lines long, smooth and shining, scariously 

 margined, as also the large bracts : petals as long, and capsule shorter. — Oregon to Colorado, 

 and perhaps to be expected in the mountains of California. 



§ 2. The 3 valves of the capsule entire : seeds not appendaged at the hilum : low 

 annuals with foliaceous bracts (the Californian species). — Alsine. 



4. A. Douglasii, Turr. & Gray. Sparingly pubescent with spreading hairs or 

 glabrous, .slender, much branched, 3 to 6 inches high: Leaves filiform, | to 1 inch 

 long: flowers rather large, on long slender pedicels: sepals oblong-ovate, acute, 

 3-nerved, 1.1 lines Long: petals obovate, 2 lines long or more: capsule globose, 

 equalling the calyx : seeds large, flat, smooth, acutely margined.- Fl. i. 674. 



Dry hillsides, throughout California. The very similar A. TENELLA, Nutt., of Oregon and 

 Washington Territory, is distinguished by narrower and more strongly nerved sepals, oblong 

 capsule, and small minutely roughened s Is. 



5. A. Californica, Brewer. Glabrous, very slender, branching, _' to 6 Inches 



high : leaves lanceolate, 1 to 2 lines long, obtusish : dowers small, on slendi C p 

 eels: sepals oblong-ovate, acute, 3-nerved, I to l.l lines long; petals spatulate, 



about a half longer: capsule oblong: seeds small, sharply inuricu.ln.te, Bolander, 



(.'at. ti. .1. bri'i'ifnliii, var. (I) Calif, mini, Gray, I'roc. Calif. Acad. iii. 101. 

 Sonoma Count} to Sanl;i ' ]U M!1 | eastward; Auburn, 5 



