CAKYOPHYLLE.B. 35 



7. ALSINELLA, Dillen. (Peablwobt). Diminutive herbs with 

 subulate or filiform exstipulate leaves, and minute long-pedioelled often 

 apetalous flowers. Sepals 4 or 5, commonly rotate-spreading in fruit. 

 Petals when present as many, entire or emarginate. Styles 4 or 5. Cap- 

 sule 1-celled, oo -seeded, dehiscent to the base into as many entire valves 

 as there are styles: the valves alternate with the sepals. 



1. A. occidentalis fWats.), Greene. Annual, glabrous or nearly so, 

 almost capillary, decumbent at base or ascending, 1 — 6 in. high: leaves 

 in pairs (none fascicled), slightly connate, acute, J! — % i n - long: fl. 

 5-merous, on long pedicels, these erect in fruit: sepals 1 line long: petals 

 nearly as long: stamens 10: capsule exceeding the calyx. — Very common. 

 March— May. 



2. A. crassicanlis (Wats.), Greene. Perennial, stoutish and succulent, 

 decumbent: leaves broadly linear, acute, 2 — 6 lines long, scarious and 

 corinate at base: pedicels 4 — 8 lines long; fl. erect or nodding, large, 

 the sepals more than a line long; petals smaller: styles very short: 

 capsule ovate, scarcely exserted from the closed fruiting calyx. — A little 

 known species found at Dillon's Beach, Marin Oo. 



8. SPERGULA, Dodoens (Cobn-Spubbey). Herbs with linear and 

 apparently whorled leaves; the opposite pair (subtended by a pair of 

 scarious stipular scales) being augmented by several crowded and spread- 

 ing fascicled ones of nearly their own size which along with them seem 

 to form a verticil. Flowers perfectly symmetrical (stamens 10 or 5); the 

 5 styles alternate with the sepals, the 5 valves of the capsule opposite the 

 sepals. Petals entire. Seeds acutely margined or winged. 



1. S. abvensis, L. Glabrous or pilose-pubescent and slightly clammy, 

 1 — 2 ft. high, simple or with many decumbent basal branches: leaves 

 almost filiform, 1 — 2 in. long: cyme terminal, ample, dichotomous, the 

 long pedicels nodding after flowering, but erect in flower and again when 

 the capsule is mature : sepals oblong or ovate, 2 — 3 lines long, the white 

 petals rather long, unfolding only in sunshine: capsule ovoid: seeds 

 acutely margined. — In fields and by waysides everywhere. Jan. — Sept. 



9. TISSA, Adanson (Sand Spubeey). More or less succulent herbs 

 of maritime districts or subsaline plains inland. Leaves linear or sub- 

 ulate, with scarious I stipules. Flowers arranged dichotomously or 

 unilaterally. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire (sometimes fewer than 5 or even 

 0). Stamens 2 — 10. Styles 3, rarely 5. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds 

 winged or wingless. Embryo annular. 



* Perennials with fusiform fleshy roots. 



■h- Internodes not short (about 1 in.); fascicled leaves few. 



1. T. macrotheca (Hornem.), Britt. Stems ascending, stoutish, 

 terete, often 1 ft. high; whole herbage deep green and rather densely 



