134 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



caller, and it clambers around and around the stamens appar- 

 ently interested only in the yellow powder. The style extends 

 a trifle beyond the stamens and is divided into five, six, or 

 seven branches at its stigmatic tip. The branches cling to- 

 gether when the flow^er first opens, then spread and lean over 

 the lowermost petal. An entering bee would likely alight 

 there and that is the one a stigma wants to meet. At twelve 

 o'clock the petals have begun to draw themselves up over the 

 inside organs, for the stamens are now^ worn and bare. The 

 stigmatic tips are recurved and_ studded with pollen grains. 

 At one o'clock there is nothing to be seen but a withered bit 

 of corolla. No wonder a bee is impatient about a portulaca's 

 opening; its life is so fleeting — only for three hours. 



If the day is half cloudy, the blooming lasts longer. Do 

 the blooms linger to give the bee partners a chance to work? 

 Bees are inclined to be slow and stupid when the sun is not 

 shining. In drizzling rain the foliage spreads in its custom- 

 ary daytime manner but the pointed flower-buds refuse to 

 open. If the next day is fair a double portion of flowers ap- 

 pear. Though each flower lasts for but a few hours many 

 come every day and when one withers a bud for another 

 pushes out beside it. 



The faded calyx, corolla, and stamens may be pulled off 

 like a cap, revealing a round greenish button with a slight 

 point in its center. Presently the round lid drops off of the 

 button and scores of small steel-blue seeds are ready to tumble 

 to the ground. Under a lens each seed is found to be beset 

 with short, blunt projections and reminds one of a warty 

 caterpillar with its head tucked close to its body. Portulaca 

 is very shallow rooted and easily pulled up with weeds that 

 may spring up in the same soil. 



