PORTULACES. 61 



united: raceme peduncled, many-flowered; pedicels scattered, often 1 in. 

 long: petals rose-purple, thrice the length of the calyx, cuneate-oblong, 

 deeply emarginate, unguioulate at base and united around the ovary: 

 seed dull to the unaided eye, under a lens roughened with a low and 

 rounded but smooth and shining tuberculation.— On northward slopes 

 in the Coast Bange, from Tamalpais and Mt. Diablo northward. 



5. C. spat hula til, Dougl. Low, densely tufted and fleshy, 1 — 3 in. 

 high: scapes little exceeding the linear leaves; involucral leaves lanceo- 

 late or linear, more or less dilated at base and there connate on one side, 

 equalling or exceeding the short raceme: petals while or purplish, little 

 longer than the sepals, truncate or rounded at apex: seed oval, )4 li ne 

 long, black and shining, the polished low tuberculation appearing under 

 a lens as a kind of reticulation. — Common on ledges of rock and gravelly 

 summits of low hills along the seaboard. 



5. M02JTIA, Micheli. Annuals, or by stolons or bulblets perennial. 

 Leave opposite or alternate. Flowers few or many in axillary racemose 

 clusters, or in a single terminal raceme. Calyx, corolla, capsule and 

 seeds as in Claytonia, but segments of corolla often unequal and sta- 

 mens reduced to 3. Seeds sometimes 1 or 2 only, usually 3. 



1. M. fontana, L. Annual, slender, erect, ascending or procumbent, 

 1 — 4 in. long: leaves opposite, narrowly oblanceolate or spatulate, dilated 

 and somewhat connate at base, "%, — M i n - long: corolla white, minute, 

 little exceeding the calyx and seldom expanding, the petals unequal, 

 united at base: seed minute, roundish, dull black, but under a lens shin- 

 ing and covered with an almost echinate murication. — Common and 

 variable; the coarser form inhabiting the margins of streamlets and 

 shores of muddy pools; the smaller and nearly prostrate state found on 

 dry ground under growing grain in rather low fields. — March — May. 



2. M. parrifolia (M05.), Greene. Slender, succulent, 4— 10 in. high: 

 leaves alternate, on a short caudex % — 1 in. high, ovate or lanceolate, 1 

 in. long or less, including the slender petiole: racemose peduncles 

 elongated, leafy below, the nodes in age bearing bud-like plantlets: 

 calyx minute: petals rose-color, 2— 4 lines long: seeds, most solitary in 

 the capsules, oval, shining. — Sonoma Co. ' Bioletti. 



6. CALYPTRIDIUM, Nullall. Glabrous and rather succulent herbs, 

 with alternate leaves, and small ephemeral flowers in solitary or 

 clustered scorpioid spikes. Sepals 2, broadly ovate or cordate-orbicu- 

 lar, scarious, usually persistent. Petals 2—4. . Stamens 1—3. Style 

 bifid. Capsule membranaceous, 2-valved, 6— 12-seeded. 



1. C. tetrapetalnm, Wats. Branches erect or ascending from a 

 more or less decumbent base, leafy up to the short dense spikes: leaves 



