3. Scleranthus. Stamens borne on the throat of the indurated 5-cleft and pointless calyx. Styles 2. Stipules none.
1. ANÝCHIA, Michx. Forked Chickweed.
Sepals 5, scarcely concave, indistinctly mucronate on the back, greenish. Stamens 2–3, rarely 5. Stigmas 2, sessile. Utricle larger than the calyx. Radicle turned downward.—Small, many times forked annuals, with small stipules, and minute flowers in the forks, produced all summer. (Same derivation as the next genus.)
1. A. dichótoma, Michx. More or less pubescent, short-jointed, low and spreading; leaves somewhat petioled, mostly very narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate; flowers nearly sessile and somewhat clustered.—Mostly in open places, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn. and Ark.
2. A. capillàcea, DC. Smooth, longer-jointed, slender and erect; leaves thinner, broader and longer (5–15´´ long); flowers more stalked and diffuse. (A. dichotoma, var. capillacea, Torr.)—Dry woodlands, same range as the last, but more abundant northward.
2. PARONÝCHIA, Tourn. Whitlow-wort.
Sepals 5, linear or oblong, concave, awned at the apex. Petals (or staminodia) bristle-form, or minute teeth, or none. Stamens 5. Style 2-cleft at the apex. Utricle enclosed in the calyx. Radicle ascending.—Tufted herbs (ours perennial), with dry and silvery stipules, and clustered flowers. (Greek name for a whitlow, and for a plant thought to cure it.)
1. P. argyrócoma, Nutt. Forming broad tufts, branched, spreading; leaves linear (½´ long); flowers densely clustered, surrounded by conspicuous large silvery bracts; calyx hairy, short-awned; petals mere teeth between the stamens.—Bare mountain slopes of the White Mts., and in the Alleghanies from Va. to Ga.; also coast of Maine and near Newburyport, Mass. July.
2. P. dichótoma, Nutt. Smooth, tufted; stems (6–12´ high) ascending from a rather woody base; leaves (½–1½´ long) and bracts narrowly awl-shaped; cymes open, many-times forked; sepals short-pointed; minute bristles in place of petals.—Rocks, Md. to N. C. and Tex. July–Sept.
3. P. Jamèsii, Torr. & Gray. Subcespitose, much branched from the somewhat woody base, minutely puberulent; leaves filiform-subulate, obtuse or mucronate; forked cymes rather close; calyx narrow-campanulate with turbinate base.—Central Kan. to W. Neb., Col., and Tex.