mollugo. FICOIDE^.. 241 



M. pumila Nutt. T. & G. Fi, i, 535. Stems 8-10 in. high, rough with 

 a minute barbed pubescence, whitish branching towards the summit; 

 leaves lanceolate, sinuate toothed or pinnatifid, the lower ones somewhat 

 petioled, the upper sessile ; flowers solitary or three together, terminating 

 the loose flowering branches, slightly pedicilate, withl or 2 linear-setaceous 

 bracts at the base; petals 10, lanceolate, acute, spreading, longer than the 

 lanceolate-subulate calyx-lobes, the inner ones smaller; stamens very 

 numerous, the outer filaments flat and somewhat dilated ; capsule clavate- 

 cylindrical, 3-valved ; seeds numerous winged. Colorado, perhaps Idaho. 



Order XLI. FICOIDEiE Juss. 



Succulent herbs or shrubs with plain triquetrous, or terete, 

 leaves without stipules. Calyx-tube coherent to the ovary, the 

 lobes usually 5, unequal . Petals very many and linear, or none. 

 Stamens 5-manv, with slender filaments, inserted on the calvx- 

 tube. Styles 4-20. Fruit 4-20-eelled, dehiscent stellately 

 across the summit or circumscissile or indehiscent. Seeds 

 usually numerous and minute with mealy albumen. 



1 MOLLUGO L. Sp. 89. 



Low and much branched glabrous annuals, with linear to obo- 

 vate-spatulate entire opposite and apparently verticillate leaves 

 and axillary flowers. Calyx 5-cleft nearly to the base, lobes 

 herbaceous, membranaceously margined. Petals none. Stamens 

 3 or 5, rarely twice as many, hypogynous. Styles 3. Capsule 

 free, thin, membranaceous 3-5-celled, loculicidally 3-5-valved ; 

 the partitions breaking away from the persistent central placenta. 

 Seeds several in each cell, longitudinally sulcate on the back. 



M. verticillata L. 1. c. Prostrate slender stems 1-6 inches long; 

 leaves spatulate to linear-oblanceolate, an inch long or less; pedicels urn- 

 bellately fascicled at the nodes ; slender, 2-3 lines long ; sepals and ob- 

 long-ovoid capsule about a line and a half long; seeds reniform, shining. 

 Brit. Columbia to California and across the continent. 



Order XLII. CACTACE.E. Linil. Nat. Syst. ed. 2, 53. 



Succulent spiny plants with usually angular or 2-edged leaf- 

 like stems without leaves, or these represented by fleshy pro- 

 cesses or spines and sessile flowers. Sepals numerous usually 

 indefinite and confounded with the petals, imbricated either 

 coherent with and crowning the ovary or covering its whole 

 surface. Petals numerous, usually indefinite in several series, 

 arising from the orifice of the calyx. Stamens indefinite cohering 

 more or less with the petals and sepals; filaments long filiform; 

 anthers ovate, versatile. Ovary fleshy coherent with the calyx 

 1 -celled with numerous parietal placentae: ovules indefinite, 

 styles united into a long tube or column; stigmas as many as 

 the placentae. Fruit succulent, 1-celled, many seeded. Seeds 

 •ovate or obovate anatropous without albumen. 





