128 



PORTULACACEAE. 



Herbage smooth ; leaves opposite; perennial 

 Herbage covered with shining vescicles; 

 leaves alternate: annuals. 



Leaves flat, ovate to spatulate. 



Leaves semiterete, linear. 



1. M. aequilaterale. 



2. M. 



3. M. 



crystallinum. 

 nodiflorum. 



L M. aequilaterale Haw. Stems prostrate, often forming ex- 

 tensive mats; leaves 3-angled, 4-6 cm. long, smooth; flowers solitary, 

 sessile or nearly so, about 3 cm, broad; calyx-tube turbinate, 2-4 

 cm. long; the larger foliaceous lobes nearly as long; petals red; styles 

 6-10. 



Common along the seashore. 



2. M. crystallinum L. Annual or biennial, prostrate and widely 

 branching, the herbage covered with white glistening papillae; 

 leaves flat, fleshy, clasping, broadly ovate or spatulate, undulate; 

 flowers axillary, sessile or nearly so, white or pink; calyx-tube cam- 

 panulate, 6-10 mm. long, lobes ovate, retuse or acute; stigmas 5. 



Common in low saline places near the coast. May-June. 



3. M. nodiflonim Haw. A prostrate branching annual with 

 rather slender terete leaves; flowers white or whitish, small, about 

 1 cm. broad. 



Not known within our limits, but occurring on Catalina Island 

 and along the shore of the mainland from near Capistrano south. 

 Abundant about San Diego. 



Family 31. PORTULACACEAE. 



Purslane Family. 



Herbs, generally fleshy or succulent, with alternate or 

 opposite leaves and regular but unsymmetrical perfect 

 flowers. Sepals commonly 2. Petals 4 or 5, rarely 

 more, hypogynous, equal in number to the petals and 

 opposite them or fewer; anthers 2-celled, longitudinally 

 dehiscent. Ovary 1 -celled; styles 2-3-cleft or divided; 

 ovules 2-many, amphitropous. Capsule membranous or 

 crustaceous, circumscissile or 3-valved. Seeds 2-many, 

 reniform-globose or compressed; embryo curved; endo- 

 sperm farinaceous. 



Sepals 2, distinct, free from the ovary, per- 

 sistent; ovary 3-valved. 

 Styles 2-cleft; sepals unequal, hyaline. 2. Calyptridium. 



Styles 3-cleft; sepals equal, herbaceous. 



Stamens more than 5; seeds many, smooth. 1. Calandrinia. 

 Stamens usually 3; seeds few, tuberculate. 3. Montia. 

 Sepals 2, united at the base, adnate to the ovary; 

 ovary circumscissile. 4. Portulaca. 



