68 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



PHYTOLACCA. 



Perennial herbs ; stems tall, branching ; leaves large, entire ; 

 flowers small, in terminal racemes, pedicels bracted ; calyx of 

 4-5 nearly equal, persistent sepals ; stamens 5-15, inserted at 

 the base of the calyx ; styles 5-12, recurved at the apex ; fruit 

 a depressed-globose, juicy berry. 



P. DECANDRA L. PoKEWEED. Stems erect, smooth, branched 

 above, usually dark purple, 4-7 ft. tall ; root large, fleshy, poisonous ; 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate, smooth, acute, long-petioled ; racemes pedun- 

 cled, many-flowered, opposite the leaves, flowers white, becoming 

 purplish ; stamens 10, shorter than the sepals ; styles 10, carpels 10 ; 

 fruit a dark purple berry. June-September. A weed on waste 

 ground. The young branches are often eaten like asparagus, and 

 the root, known as '' garget root," is used in medicine. 



35. portulacace;e. purslane family. 



Herbs ; stems fleshy or succulent ; leaves alternate or oppo- 

 site ; flowers perfect, regular, unsymmetrical ; sepals com- 

 monly 2, sometimes 5 ; petals 3-6, hypogynous, entire or 

 emarginate ; stamens hypogynous, as many as the petals and 

 opposite them, or indefinite ; pistil 1, styles 3-6, mostly 

 united below, ovary 1-5-celled, few-many-seeded ; fruit a 

 membranaceous, circumscissile capsule. 



I. claytonia. 



Perennial ; stem simple, smooth, erect, 4-10 in. high ; 

 leaves 2, opposite, smooth, succulent ; flowers in a terminal 

 raceme ; sepals 2, ovate, persistent ; petals 5, sometimes 

 coherent at the base ; stamens 5, inserted on the base of the 

 petals ; style 3-cleft, ovary 1-celled, 3-6-seeded. 



C. YiRGiNiCA L. Spring Beauty. Stem simple, erect from a 

 deep, tuberous root; the 2 stem-leaves narrowly elliptical, 3-6 in. 

 long, smooth, fleshy ; basal leaves occasionally produced ; flowers 



