PORTULACACBAE (PURSLANE FAMILY) 177 



1. TALINUM Adans. 



Low glabrous herbs, mostly with linear leaves (clustered near the base), 

 without stipules, and usually white or pink cymose flowers. Sepals deciduous 

 (tardily in oxaa). Petals 5, fugacious. Stamens adherent to the base of the 

 petals. Style 3-lobed or 3-cleft. Seeds numerous. 



1. Talinum parviflorum Nutt. T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1: 197. 1838. Stem short, 

 from thick fleshy branching roots: leaves terete or nearly so, broadened at the 

 base: scape-like peduncles slender, 5-20 cm. high: flowers pink, in loose cymes: 

 sepals ovate: stamens 5: capsule ovoid. T. teretifolium. — In dry soil;' Minne- 

 sota to Colorado and southward. 



2. CLAYTONIA L. Spmng Beauty 



Low glabrous succulent perennial herbs with a pair of opposite stem leaves 

 (alternate in C. megarrhiza) and usually 1 or more radical ones. Flowers 

 white, yellow, or rose-colored, in naked loose terminal simple or paniculate 

 racemes. Sepals 2, persistent. Style 3-oleft. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds not 

 more than 6, compressed, orbicular or, reniform. 



Radical leaves and the stems from a tuber-like conn. 



Flowers yellow 1. C. aurea. 



Flowers white or pink, with pink or purple veins. 



Kadical leaves usually more than, 1, £ways present ... 2. C. multicaiilis. 

 Radical leaves only 1, or wanting. 



Petals retuse or obcordate; sepals obtuse 3. C. lanceolata. 



Petals rounded-obtuse; sepals subacute 4. G. rosea. 



ftadical leaves and stems from a thick caudex. 5. C. megarrhiza. 



1. Claytonia aurea A. Nels. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 27: 260. 1900. Conn 

 large, deep-set: radical leaf oblong or oblanceolate, not more than half as long 

 as its slender petiole; cauline sessile by a narrowed base, Unear-lanceolate, 

 2-4 cm. long: stems 1-5 from each conn, rather stout, 1-2 dm. high: raceme 

 many-flowered, rather Idng-peduncled: sepals rhomboidal or suboval: petals 

 large, golden-yellow, oval, abruptly narrowed into a short claw. — ^Type lor 

 cality, Henry's Lake, Idaho; probably in Wyoming and Utah. 



2. Claytonia multicaulis A: Nels. 1. c. Conns latrge, 15-25 mm. in diameter^ 

 near the surface of the ground: radical leaves usually more than one (often 

 several), oblong or lanceolate, as long as the_ petiole; cauline similar, sessile: 

 raceme short-pedimcled, 5-9-flowered; pedicels subumbellate, slender, the 

 lowest with an obtuse green bract at the base: sepals obtuse, half as long as 

 the elhptic or oval short-clawed petals, turning yellowish in drying: petals 

 white with purplish veins, yellowish at base when dry. — Collected first in 

 Yellowstone Park; apparently from Colorado to Montana. 



3. Claytonia lanceolata Fursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 1: 175. 1814. Cbrm rathei; 

 small, 7-15 mm. in diameter .-radical leaf, when present, oblong-lanceolate, 

 scarcely half as long as the slender petiole; cauline sessile, oblong-lanceolate 

 to elliptic: raceme few-several-flowered, sessile between the paired leave's, 

 rarely longer than the leaves: sepals elliptic, obtuse: petals retuSe or emar- 

 ginate or obcordate. C. caroliniana. — From northern Wyoming far north- 

 ward and westward. 



4. Claytonia rosea Rydb. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 31: 404. 1904. Much hke 

 the preceding: cauline leaves oblong-lanceolate or narrower,^ 2^5 cm. long* 

 raceme pedimcled, surpassing the leaves: sepals subacute: petals spatulate 

 to obovate, entire, rounded-ohtuse, pale, rose-color, with purple vems. C. 

 caroliniana sessUifoUa. — Common on moist slopes; throughout our range. 



5. Claytonia megarrhiza (Gray) Parry, in Wats. Bibl. Index, 118. 1878. 

 Perennial, with a thickened caudex: root fusiform, very large: leaves fleshy; 

 radical ones petioled; cauline lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, sessile: racetnes 

 secund: flowers large, profuse, white with pinkish veins: petals obovate, 

 subemarginate. — High alpine, growing in crevices of the rock, its large purple 

 tsHD-root penetrating to a great depth; mountains of Colorado; Utah, and 

 'Wyoming. 



