264 PRA.NKBNIACEAB. 



Flowers sessile, mostly 2-merous 1. E. brachysperma. 



Flowers Bhort-pediceled, mostly 4-merous 2. E. calif ornica. 



1. E. brachysperma Gray. Mud Purslane. Mostly terrestrial, the 

 plants forming little mats (2 or 3 in. across) in wet places or late vernal 

 lie. Is of winter pools; leaves obovate or oblong, narrowed at base, 1 to 2 lines 

 long; flowers sessile, mostly 2-merous; capsule bursting irregularly; seed with 

 ti to 7 Longitudinal lines and 10 to 12 cross-bars. 



Walnut Creek and southwestward to the coast. May. 



2. E. californica Gray. Leaves obovate or oblanceolate, the lower ones 

 petioled; flowers on short pedicels; sepals and petals 3 or 4, the stamens twice 

 ;i- many; seeds curved, with 10 or 12 longitudinal lines and several cross-linos. 



Lower Sacramento Valley; northern Sierra Nevada. 



2. BERGIA L. 



Branching annual, very leaf v. with pubescent herbage. Flowers pediceled 

 and often fascicled, 5-merous. Sepals pointed or acute, with strong midrib and 

 scarious margins. Capsule ovoid, of firm texture, more or less of the parti- 

 tions remaining with the axis. (Dr. P. J. Bergius, Swedish naturalist of the 

 18th century.) 



1. B. texana (Hook.) Seubert. Diffusely branched, 6 to 12 in. high; 

 stems glandular-pubescent; leaves obovate or oblanceolate, tapering at base, 

 serrulate at apex, \U to l 1 /^ in. long; sepals 2 lines long, equaling or exceeding 

 the whitish petals; stamens 5 or 10. 



Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. 



FRANKENIACEAE. Frankenia Family. 



Ours low perennial herbs or somewhat suffrutescent plants, with opposite 

 entire leaves and no stipules, perfect flow T ers, a 1-celled superior ovary with 

 2 to 4 parietal placentae, and seeds with a straight embryo. 



1. FRANKENIA L. 

 Leaves small, crowded and fascicled in the axils. Flowers sessile, solitary, 

 or by the reduction of the upper leaves to bracts becoming somewhat cymose. 

 Calyx tubular, furrowed or almost prismatic, 4 or 5-toothed. Petals 4 or 5, 

 appendaged at the very base of the blade, the appendage decurrent on the 

 claw. Stamens in ours about 6 (4 to 7), hypogynous, exserted from the tube. 

 Style in ours 3-cleft, included. Capsule linear, angled, included in the per- 

 sist mt calyx, 2 to 4-valved. the seeds attached by filiform funiculi to the 

 margins of the valves. (John Franke, Swedish Professor at Upsala, the first 

 author who treated of Swedish plants.) 



1. F. grandifolia C. & S. Alkali-Heath. Erect or diffuse, slightly 

 woody at base, 8 to 13 in. high, glabrous or somewhat pubescent or short- 

 hirsute, particularly at the nodes; leaves obovate to linear-oblanceolate, 3 to 

 »i linos long, with revolute margins, sessile or short-petiolate, the opposite pair 

 mostly united by a somewhat membranaceous Bheathing base; calyx 3 lines 

 Long, Darrow-cylindrieal, with acute teeth; petals slightly irregular, pinkish, 

 ted l to l'-j lines, with oblong blade erose at summit; filaments some- 

 times slightly dilated below the middle; seeds numerous. 



Common along the Bea-shore, in Bait-marshes, and on alkaline plains of the 

 interior. June-Oct. Called Yerba Eteuma by Spanish-Californiana. 



