252 
UMBELLIFERiE. 
Mollugo. 
the lobes more or less purple : stamens many. — Rohrbach in Mart. FI. Bras. xiv 2 . 
310, t. 70. 
A very variable species, widely distributed around the globe. It has been collected near Fort 
Mohave (Cooper), and is frequent in saline or alkaline valleys through the interior from ,N. Nevada 
to Colorado and New Mexico, often with much broader leaves than is usual in the sea-coast forms. 
3. MOLLUGO, Linn. Carpet r weed . 
Calyx 5-cleft nearly to the base; the lobes herbaceous, membranously margined. 
Petals none. Stamens 3 or 5, rarely twice as many, hypogynous. Styles 3. Cap- 
sule 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. — Annuals, low and much branched, glabrous, 
not succulent ; leaves linear to obovate-spatulate, entire, opposite and apparently 
vertieillate ; stipules obsolete ; flowers mostly on long pedicels and axillary. 
About a dozen species in the warmer regions of the globe. The following is the only one in- 
digenous to N. America. 
1. M. verticillata, Linn. Prostrate, covering the ground, slender: leaves spat- 
ulate to linear-oblanceolate, an inch long or less : pedicels umbellately fascicled at 
the nodes, slender, 2 or 3 lines long : sepals and oblong-ovoid capsule about 1^ lines 
long : seeds reniform, shining. Rohrbach, V c. 240, t. 55. 
On light sandy soils from the Columbia Kiver southward; at Eagle Creek, near Shasta, and 
at McCumber’s Flat (Brewer, Newberry) ; from Arizona to Colorado and New Mexico, and fre- 
quent in the Atlantic States as a weed in cultivated grounds : thence southward to the W. Indies 
and Brazil. HHHi 
NJ V TTTVmW.T.TTPP 1 !? 
Botanical 
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