FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 307 



Key to the species 

 1. Plant perennial, glabrous; sepals 5; petals usually present. 



1. S. SAGIXOIDES, 



1. Plant annual, often glandular-pubescent; sepals 4; petals usually none. 



2. S. APETALA. 



1. Sagina saginoides (L.) Britton, Torrey Bot. Club Mem. 5: 151. 



1894. 



Spergula saginoides L., Sp. PL 441. 1753. 



San Francisco Peaks, Coconino County, 11,500 feet (Knowlton 

 134), Pinal Mountains, Gila County, about 5,000 feet {Kearney and 

 Harrison 1542). Greenland to Alaska, south to New Mexico, 

 Arizona, and California; Eurasia. 



The Arizona specimens probably belong to var. hesperia Fernald. 



2. Sagina apetala Aral., Animad. Alt. 22. 1764. 



Miami to Superior, Gila County (Nelson 1907). Eastern United 

 States, Arizona, and southern California, introduced from Europe. 



4. AREXARIA. Sandwort 



Plants mostly perennial; stems slender, often tufted; flowers mostly 

 in cymes, these open or congested; sepals 5, commonly ribbed or 

 keeled; petals 5, entire or nearly so; stamens normaUy 10; styles 3; 

 capsule longitudinally dehiscent. 



Where sufficiently abundant, these plants are said to furnish ex- 

 cellent forage but do not withstand heavy grazing. 



Key to the species 



1. Valves of the capsule not cleft; plants usually glandular-pubescent (2). 



2. Plant annual; stems diffusely branched from near the base, usually more 

 than 5 cm. long; leaf blades linear-subulate to nearly filiform, not rigid 



or pungent 1. A. douglasii. 



2. Plants perennial, more or less cespitose; stems numerous, seldom more than 

 5 cm. long; leaf blades less than 1 cm. long, linear-subulate, often slightly 

 pungent: alpine or subalpine (3). 



3. Sepals acute or acuminate, surpassing the petals 2. A. verxa. 



3. Sepals obtuse, not surpassing and usually shorter than the petals. 



3. A. SAJAXEXSIS. 

 1. Valves of the capsule cleft; plants perennial (4). 



4. Leaf blades lanceolate or broader, not or scarcely rigid or pungent; glandular 

 pubescence none (5). 

 5. Pedicels divergent after anthesis, often 4 times as long as the fruit; plant 

 green, sparsely puberulent or glabrate; stems lax, diffusely branched, 

 20 to 40 cm. long; sepals at anthesis mostly 3 to 3.5 mm. long. 



4. A. CONFUSA. 



5. Pedicels erect or ascending, seldom more than 3 times as long as the fruit; 



plants grayish and densely puberulent, to green and glabrate. 



5. A. SAXOSA. 

 4. Leaf blades linear-subulate or acicular, more or less rigid and pungent; plants 

 grasslike, more or less cespitose, with a subligneous caudex (6). 



6. Sepals obtuse or obtusish, apiculate, broadly ovate and broadly scarious- 



margined, as are the bracts; petals much surpassing the sepals; leaf 

 blades more or less incurved; inflorescence glandular. 



6. A. capillabis. 

 6. Sepals acute or acuminate, linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate (7). 

 7. Petals and capsules shorter than to slightly surpassing the sepals (8). 



