PURSLANE FAMILY. 69 



21. PORTULACACE^E, PURSLANE FAMILY. 



Succulent-leaved herbs, with 2 sepals and 5 petals, ihe stamens 

 sometimes many, sometimes few, and then one before each petal ; 

 ovary 1-celled, becoming a pod, with many or few kidney-shaped 

 seeds on a central placenta, or on slender seed-stalks from the base. 

 Seeds as in the Pink Family. 



1. PORTULACA. Stamens more numerous than the petals. Style cleft into 



several Mender divisions. Lower part of the ovary and many-seeded pod 

 united with the bottom of the calyx; the upper part when mature falling off 

 as a lid. Flowers opening only once, in sunshine. 



2. TALINUM. Stamens more numerous than the petals. Style 3-lobed at the 



summit. Calyx free from the ovary, deciduous. Pod 3-valved, many-seeded. 

 Flowers opening only once, in sunshine. 



3. CALANDR1NIA. Stamens numerous. Style 3-cleft at the summit. Calyx 



free from the ovary, persistent, enclosing the 3-vaJved many-seeded pod. 

 Flowers opening only once, in sunshine. 



4. CLAYTON1A. Stamens 5, one attached to the base of each petal. Style 



3-cleft at the summit. Calyx persistent, free from the few-seeded pod. 

 Flowers usually opening for more than one day. 



1. PORTULACA, PURSLANE. (Old Latin name for Purslane.) Leafy 

 and branching, low and spreading, with fleshy sessile leaves ; fl. all summer. 

 (Lessons, p. 95, fig. 272, and p. 124, fig. 404.) Q 



P. oleracea, COMMON P. Very smooth, with prostrate stems, obovate or 

 wedge-form leaves, and small sessile flowers opening only in bright sunshine 

 and for a short time ; the petals pale yellow. The commonest garden weed, 

 sometimes used as a pot-herb. 



P. pilosa, HAIRY P. Wild far S., has linear terete leaves, with a tuft of 

 beard-like hairs in the axils, and rather large pink flowers. 



P. grandifibra, GREAT-FLOWERED P., is probably a variety of the last, 

 from South America, commonly cult, for ornament ; the large very showy 

 flowers brilliant purple, crimson, red, sometimes white or yellow, or with light 

 centre, of many shades or variations. 



2. TALINUM. (Name unexplained.) One wild species in some places. 

 T. teretif61ium, TERETE-LEAVED T. Low and smooth, with tlik-k and 



fleshy root, short stems bearing crowded linear terete leaves, and a slender 

 naked peduncle, many-flowered ; petals rose-purple. Serpentine rocks, Penn- 

 sylvania, and rarer west and south : fl. all summer. 2/ 



3. CALANDRINIA. (Named for a Swiss botanist, Calandrini.) Culti- 

 vated for ornament in choice gardens : fl. all summer. 



C. discolor. Cult, as an annual, from Chili ; very glabrous, making a 

 rosette of fleshy spatulate leaves at the root (these glaucous above and tinged 

 with purple beneath), and sending up a naked flower-stem, bearing a raceme of 

 large rose-purple flowers, 2' in diameter. 



C. Menzi6sii, MENZIES' C. Low, spreading, leafy-stemmed annual, from 

 Oregon and California, with bright green and tender lance-spatulate leaves, and 

 crimson flowers (nearly 1' broad) in a short leafy raceme. 



4. CLAYTONIA, SPRING BEAUTY. (Named for Join Clayton, an 

 early botanist in Virginia.) Low, smooth herbs : ours producing only a pair 

 of stem leaves and a short raceme of flowers. 



* Stem sini/ile from a round tuber : Irarfs srjiiini/'' : tl. fir/// s/iriui/. 2/ 



C. Virginica, NARROW-LEAVED S. In moist woods, one of the prettiest 

 spring flowers ; petals rose-color with pink veins ; leaves linear-lanceolate. 



C. Caroliniana, BROADER-LEAVED S. In rich woods ; commonest N. 

 and along the Alleghanies, smaller than the other, with oblong-spatulate or 

 lance-oblong leaves only 1' or 2' long. 



