CAEPET-WEED FAMILY 77 



and pistils are in separate flowers and on different plants. 

 The slender, club-shaped fruit, about one-third of an inch 

 long, is ribbed, and has five rows of viscid glands. The 

 smooth, entire leaves, one to three inches long, are either 

 oval or are broadest at the base. Like those of the weed 

 mentioned above, the leaves are often alternately unequal 

 in size. 



CAEPET-WEED FAMILY (Aizoaceae (Tetragonmceae)) 



This family is represented in Florida by low plants 

 which spread in matted growth, as the name carpet-weed 

 indicates. None of our species is especially noticeable. 

 The corolla is lacking in flowers of this family, but the 

 calyx of five sepals is colored and corolla-like. The fruit 

 is a capsule. 



The sea-purslane, Sesuvium Portulacastrum, a portu- 

 laca-like plant, grows in muddy and sandy places near 

 the coast, and blooms in winter, as well as at other sea- 

 sons. The solitary flowers in the leaf-axils are purple 

 within and green without, and are slightly more than half 

 an inch across. Very full of stamens they are, like the 

 cultivated mesembryanthemums to which they are re- 

 lated, and each of the five sepals bears a small horn-like 

 process near the tip. The oblong, opposite leaves, one- 

 half to one and one-half inches long, are smooth and 

 fleshy. The plants are sometimes cooked and eaten, but 

 have a strong salt flavor. 



Carpet-weed or Indian chickweed, Mollugo verticillata, 

 is a common annual weed of orange groves and other 

 cultivated land. Its many slender branches spread 

 radially from the root, and bear small, appar- 

 ently whorled leaves, and little white flowers in the leaf- 

 axils. 



