170 



CARYOPHYLLACEJE. 



Var. leucantha (Robinson) (Tissa leucantha Greene). Glabrous 

 except a glandular pubescence on the looser inflorescence; flowers 

 commonly white. — Alkaline plains of the Sacramento southward to 

 the Livermore Valley and the San Joaquin. May-June. 



Var. scariosa Britton (T. pallida Greene). Herbage pale, glan- 

 dular-pubescent or almost glabrous; internodes short; stipules ovate, 

 acuminate, 4 to 5 lines long; flowers scattered and on pedicels £ in. 

 long or less, or in reduced terminal cymes. — Sea-bluffs, San Francisco 

 to Monterey. 



2. T. rubra (L.) Britt. var. perennans Greene. Stems 4 to 9 

 in. long, slender and wiry, many from a densely tufted base, branch- 

 ing little, flowering from about the middle; herbage comparatively 

 glabrous; leaves narrowly linear, 5 lines long or less; stipules ovate, 

 silvery-scarious, 2 lines long, very conspicuous; pedicels slender, 2 to 

 4 lines long; sepals oblong, acute, 2 lines long; petals reddish, about 

 equaling the sepals; capsule not exserted from the calyx; seeds with 

 a marginal elevation. 



Beaten paths and by roadsides, infrequent: Sacramento Valley, 

 from Redding to the Montezuma Hills; Napa Valley; Healdsburg. 

 May. Introduced from Europe. 



3. T. Clevelandi Greene. Perennial, viscid-glandular, the stems 

 prostrate, forming deep-green mats 5 to 13 in. broad; leaves filiform, 

 conspicuously fascicled in the axils, all longer than the internodes; 

 flowers in terminal cymes; corolla 3 to 4 lines broad, white. 



Sandy soil. San Francisco; San Jose, acc. to Robinson; San 

 Diego. 



4. T. salina (Presl.) Greene. Branching, erect or sometimes 

 diftuse and prostrate, the stems 3 to 8 in. long; leaves narrowly 

 linear, commonly shorter than the internodes; pedicels leafy-bracted 

 or the upper bractless, not exceeding the capsules; sepals oblong- 

 ovate, obtuse, scarious-margined, 2 lines long; capsule acute, longer 

 than the calyx. 



Alkaline plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin westward to 

 the salt marshes near the coast. May-Aug. 



Var. involucrata (Robinson). Heads of closely aggregated flowers 

 subtended by 2 to several foliaceous bracts. — Mt. Eden; Newark. 



Var. tenuis (T. tenuis Greene). Dichotomously and copiously 

 branched, the branches slender and internodes long; flowers very 

 numerous, short-pediceled, the uppermost sessile in close groups; 

 stamens 2 to 5; capsule twice as long as the ovate-oblong sepals. — 

 Rarely collected: Alameda, Greene; Hollister, Setchell. Apr. 



9. SPERGULA L. Spurrey. 

 Annual. Leaves narrowly linear or subterete, apparently in whorls 

 but rarely opposite, several others of their own size being crowded in 

 the axils; stipules small and scarious. Flowers symmetrical. Sepals 

 5. Petals 5,, white, entire. Stamens 10, occasionally 5. Styles 5 T 

 alternate with the sepals. Capsule 5-valved, the entire valves oppo- 



