188 



FICOIDE^S. 



Stamens 1, 2, or 3, shorter than the petals; style very short or almost none . . . 



1 . C. quadripetalu m . 



Stamens 3, twice as long as the petals; style very long, filiform 



2. C. umbellatum. 



1. C. quadripetalum Wats. About 9. in. high; branches erect 

 from a decumbent base, leafy up to the short dense spikes; leaves 

 oblong-spatulate, 2 in. long or less, including the tapering petiole; 

 sepals round-reniform, white-scarious and rose-tinged with greenish 

 center, 2 to 4 lines broad, exceeding the 4 petals; capsule oblong-oval, 

 10 to 20-seeded, little or not at all surpassing the fruiting calyx. 



Near the Geysers in Sonoma Co., acc. to Greene; first coll. by 

 Torrey in 1864 in Lake Co.; later (1884) by Kattan on the head 

 waters of the Eel in northern Lake Co. 



2. C. umbellatum (Torr.) Greene. Pussy's Paws. Radical 

 leaves spatulate in a dense rosette; peduncles 1 to 7 in. high; sepals 

 wholly scarious or with a mere greenish center emarginate at 

 apex and base, equal; petals 4, obovate; 2 stamens opposite petals, 

 the third .alternate, these and the long styles exserted; capsule 

 globose-obovate, few-seeded. 



Near Santa Cruz, Anderson; Humboldt Co.; frequent in the Sierra 

 Nevada. June-Sept. 



29. FICOIDE>E. Carpet- weed Family. 



Ours prostrate or decumbent herbs. Flowers perfect and regular, 

 either solitary or clustered. Calyx 4 to 5-lobed or -parted, either free 

 from or more or less adnate to the ovary. Stamens hypogynous or 

 commonly perigynous, fewer than the sepals or more numerous. 

 Fruit a loculicidal or circumscissile capsule or indehiscent. 



Calyx free from the ovary; petals none; leaves opposite. 

 Capsule loculicidal, 3-valved; sepals 5, white inside; stamens 3 to 5 .... 



X. MOLLUGO. 



Capsule circumscissile; calyx 5-cleft. 

 Stipules scarious, laciniate; ovary 1-celled; stamens 1 to 3. 



2. Cypselea. 



Stipules none; ovary 3 to 5-celled; stamens numerous 



3. Sesuvium. 



Calyx adnate to the ovary. 

 Petals none; leaves alternate, plane; fruit indehiscent 



4. Tetragonia. 



Petals numerous; leaves opposite, 3-sided and very fleshy; fruit dehiscent . . 



5. Mesembryanthemum. 



1. MOLLUGO L. Carpet Weed. 



Low much-branched annuals with whorled leaves and obsolete stip- 

 ules. Flowers axillary, on slender pedicels. Sepals 5, scarious- 

 margined, white within, thus resembling petals when expanded, 

 persistent. Petals none. Stamens 5, hypogynous and alternate with 

 the sepals, or 3 and alternate with the cells of the ovary. Stigmas 3. 

 Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved, loculicidally dehiscent, the partitions 

 breaking away from the many-seeded axis. (Ancient Latin name.) 



1. M. verticillata L. Indian Chick-WEBD. Prostrate, form- 



