150 CARYOPHYLLACEAE. 



Eiver lowlands and alkaline fields in the San Joaquin Valley and southward 

 to Southern California. May-Aug. 



5. TETRAGONIA L. Sea Spinach. 



Succulent annual with alternate plane leaves. Flowers axillary, greenish, 

 apetalous. Calyx 4-lobed, adnate to the 3 to 9-celled ovary. Stamens 1 to 

 many, perigynous. Fruit a hard or bony nut, indehiscent, enveloped by the 

 calyx which bears several horn -like protuberances. (Greek, tetra, 4, and gonu, 

 knee or angle, alluding to the fruit.) 



1. T. expansa Murr. New Zealand Spinach. Branches procumbent or 

 prostrate; leaves rhombic-ovate, entire, 4 to 5-nerved beneath, 1 to 2% in. 

 long, abruptly contracted at base to a broad petiole, the surface covered with 

 crystalline papillae; flowers subsessile, 1 to 3 in each axil; calyx-lobes widely 

 spreading, yellowish within; fruit 4-horned, 4 to 6 lines long. 



Beaches of San Francisco Bay. Naturalized from China and New Zealand. 



6. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM L. Fig Marigold. Ice Plant. 



Ours glabrous perennial herbs. Stems and leaves very succulent, the latter 

 opposite, without stipules. Flowers axillary and terminal. Calyx-tube adnate 

 to the ovary, the lobes unequal and foliaceous. Petals linear, very numerous, 

 inserted with the innumerable stamens on the tube of the calyx. Ovary in 

 ours 10 to 12-celled, the styles as many as the cells of the ovary and distinct 

 or nearly so. Capsule becoming baccate, dehiscing in rainy weather by stel- 

 late valves at the flattened summit. Seeds minute, numerous. (Greek mesem- 

 bria, mid-day, and anthemon, blossom.) 



1. M. aequilaterale Haworth. Sea Fig. Stems several ft. long, the 

 plants often forming extensive mats; leaves 3-sided, with nearly flat faces, 

 thicker than broad, iy 2 to 2 in. long; flowers terminal, subsessile or shortly 

 peduncled, fragrant and showy (1^4 to 2 in. board); petals bright rose- 

 purple; styles 6 to 10. 



Dunes and cliffs near the sea from Marin Co. southward to San Diego. 

 In cultivation at Berkeley under the student name of ' ' Faculty Onions. ' ' 

 Called " Beach- Apple" in San Luis Obispo Co. 



CARYOPHYLLACEAE. Pink Family. 



Herbs of inert properties, with commonly swollen nodes, simple and entire 

 leaves always opposite, and regular perfect flowers. Calyx persistent. Corolla 

 white, red or pink. Sepals and petals 5 (or 4), the stamens as many and 

 alternate with the petals, or twice as many, rarely fewer. Ovary superior, 

 1-celled (imperfectly 3-celled in some Silenes), with 2 to 5 styles and 1 to 

 many ovules on a free central placenta. Fruit a few to many-seeded 1-celled 

 capsule dehiscent at the summit by short valves or teeth (these as many or 

 twice as many as the carpels), or 1-seeded and indehiscent, thus becoming a 

 nutlet or utricle. Embryo in all ours curved around the periphery of the 

 seed, the endosperm occupying the center. 



A. Fruit a capsule; stipules none. 

 Sepals united into a 5-tootlied tubular or campanulate calyx; petals narrowed below into 

 a conspicuous elaw; these with the (10) stamens and ovary frequently raised above 

 the calyx on a stipe; flowers mostly large and showy. 

 Styles 2; capsule opening by 4 short teeth; calyx with 5 prominent angles; petals 



not appendaged 1. Vaccaria 



Styles 3; capsule opening by 3 or 6 teeth or valves; claw of the petals commonly 

 bearing BCales or appendages at its junction with the blade 2. Silene. 



