ROBINSON, — ALSINEZ. 307 
erect, 2-5 inches high, subsimple: the filiform straight peduncles 
exceeding the narrowly linear very acute leaves: flowers normally 
5d-parted: calyx appressed even in fruit, obtusish but not rounded at the 
base, 3 the length of the capsule valves: petals scarcely equalling the 
sepals: stamens 10.— Fl. i. 177. S. procumbens, Pursh. Fl. 119. 
S. Eilliottii, Fenzl ex Gray, Man. ed. 2,61. S. subulata, Torr. & 
Gray, Fl. i. 178, not of Wimm. ? Spergula nodosa, Walt. Car. 142. 
S. saginoides, Michx. Fl. i. 276, not of Linn. S. decumbens, EIl. 
Sk. i. 523. 8. subulata, Hook. FI]. Bor.-Am. i. 93. — New England to 
Great Plains of British America (Macoun), southward to Florida and 
Texas; on dry, sandy ground. 
Var. Smithii, Wars. More slender: flowers apetalous, at least 
all the later ones. — Bibl. Index, 105; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, 
Man. ed. 6, 89. S. subulata, var. Smithii, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 95. 
Unsatisfactorily distinguished from S. apetala by its 5-parted flowers. 
- occidentalis, Wars. Annual, glabrous, with habit and foliage 
of the preceding species but with longer pedicels (usually 7-10 or 12 
lines) and larger also 5-parted flowers: capsule 13 lines in length: 
calyx rounded at the base. — Proc. Am. Acad. x. 344. S. procum- 
bens, Boland. Cat. 6; Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp. 242? S. Linnei, 
Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 378. Alsinella occidentalis, Greene, FI. 
Francis. 125.— Vancouver’s Island to Southern California, low 
grounds and salt marshes of the coast. The western equivalent of 
S. decumbens, possibly intergrading with that species. 
Ss. procumbens, L. Matted: the numerous procumbent leafy 
stems 1}—4 inches in length: leaves smooth or ciliate, narrowly linear, 
obtusish and mucronate: pedicels filiform elongated, nodding at the 
summit during anthesis: flowers normally 4-parted: petals considera- 
bly shorter than the sepals ; the latter spreading in fruit. — Spec. 128 ; 
orr. & Gray, Fl. i. 177. — Moist rocks, also in paths, etc., Nova 
Scotia to Pennsylvania, also rarely inland as far as Michigan, Hill ; 
flowering through the summer. (Eu., Asia, S. Amer.) Apetalous 
forms have been noted in the Old World. 
* * Stems very short, $-2 inches long; flowers rather small, 5-parted, terminal: 
leaves thickish, narrowly linear to subulate, not proliferous in the upper 
axils but almost always forming lateral sterile rosettes about the 
S. Linnesi, Prrsx, Matted, 1-3 inches high: stems slender, de- 
cumbent, rooting and often producing lateral rosettes: radical leaves 
narrowly linear, acutely mucronate, 3-7 lines long, forming dense and 
Mostly persistent rosettes; cauline leaves short, few: pedicels long, 
filiform, commonly recurved at the summit: flowers moderately large 
