tissa. ILLECEBRACE.E. 89 



PENTACLENA. 



] branched, 3-9 inches high ; leaves linear, fleshy, %-l inch long or more: sti- 

 pules short: pedicels 1-9 lines long, reflexed: calyx 1-2 lines long: capsule a 

 ittle longer than the calyx. Along the Coast, Puget Sound to California, 

 and the Atlantic Coast. 



* * * Procumbent or decumbent winter annuals, scarcely at all 

 fleshy: flowers small or of medium size; stipules conspicuous. 



T. rubra Britton 1. c. 127. Spvrgulana rubra Presl. Stems spread 

 ing: wiry, 1-10 inches long, smoothish below, fine glandular-pubescent 

 above: leaves flat above, narrowly linear, cuspidate 4-9 lines Jong |-i 

 line broad; stipules white, attenuate 2-3 lines long: inflorescence racemi- 

 form: pedicels filiform, exceeding the bracts and about twice as long as the 

 oblong- lanceolate scarious- margined acutisli glandular-pubescent sepals: 

 flowers magenta, lj^ lines in diameter, petals scarcely equalling the calyx: 

 capsule equalling the calyx: seeds minutely crested but not winged. Road- 

 sides and sandy places, Washington to California and the Atlantic States 

 (Europe). 



* * * * Slender spreading or erect annuals scarcely fleshy; stipules 

 short, deltoid. 



T. diandra Britton 1. c. 128. Spergularia diandria Boiss. Viscid pu- 

 bescent to nearly glabrous; leaves not fascicled, linear-filiform: pedicels 

 slender, about two lines long, spreading or deflexed: sepals in fruit 1% lines 

 long but little exceeding the capsule: stamens usually only 2 or 3. Sandy 

 places from the Columbia valley to Texas. 



Order XII. ILLECEBRACEJE Lindl. Nat. Syst. ed. 2, 127. 



Herbaceous or rarely suffrutescent branching plants with op- 

 posite or fascicled entire mostly sessile leaves and scarious sti- 

 pules, closely related to Amarantaceas. Sepals 5; persistent: 

 petals reduced to mere filaments alternate Avith the sepals or 

 wanting. Stamens as many as the sepals and opposite them, 

 fixed by the middle introse. Ovary 1-ceHed by the oblitera- 

 tion of the dissepiments. Style 2-cleft. Fruit an utricle with 

 a solitary or geminate ovule borne on slender funiculi rising 

 from the base of the cell. Seeds campylotropous. Embryo 

 more or less curved around the outside of mealy albumen. 



1 PENTACENA Bartling. 



Low densely tufted perennial, with the subulate leaves densely 

 crowded on the branches, dry and silvery stipules and axillary 

 clusters of sessile flowers. Sepal -» 5, nearly distinct, hooded, 

 unequal, terminating in a short divergent spine, the inner 

 more shortly awned. Petals minute, scale-like. Stamens 3-5, 

 inserted at the base of the sepals : style very short, bifid. Utricle 

 included in the rigid connivent calyx. 



P. ramosissima Hook. & Arm. Bot. Misc. iii, 338. Prostrate and mat- 

 ted, 2-18 inches long, somewhat woolly: leaves 3-5 lines long, pungently 

 awned, at length recurved : stipules lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than 

 the leaves, 1-nerved: calyx tube a line long, the divergent outer lobes 

 nearly twice longer : stamens usually 5 : stigmas subsessile *. utricle apicu- 

 ate. On the seashore, Oregon to southern California. 



