84 PURSLANE FAMILY 



flowers each between 3 dry and rigid sharp-pointed bracts. 

 In our single genus the stamens are 5 or 3 and the 1-seeded 

 fruit is 2 or 3-beaked at apex. 



1. AMARANTHUS. Amaranth. 

 1. A. graecizans L. Tumble Weed. A coarse diffusely 

 branched annual, 1 or 2 ft. high, the stems smooth and 

 whitish. Leaves obovate or spatulate, very obtuse, white- 

 veined, 1 in. or less long, slender-petioled. Flowers crowded 

 in the upper leaf-axils. Sepals 3. (A. albus L.) — A common 

 introduced weed of the plains, reaching our lower valleys. 

 Other species are also to be expected, especially A. calif ornicus 

 Wats., known by its nearly prostrate stems and single sepal 

 to the fertile flowers. 



PORTULACACEAE. Purslane Family. 



Low herbs with succulent entire leaves and regular flowers. 

 Ovary free from the calyx, becoming a many-seeded capsule. 

 Capsule breaking crosswise at maturity; stamens 5 to numerous. 1. Lewisia. 

 Capsule splitting longitudinally; stamens 3 or S. 



Flowers in racemes or scattered 2. Montia. 



Flowers in close coiled spikes; stamens long-exserted 3. Spraguea. 



1. LEWISIA. Bitter-root. 

 Herbs with thick perennial roots (slender stems from a 

 corm in L. triphylla) and fleshy linear leaves. Sepals 2 to 8. 

 Petals 3 to 16. Style-branches 3 to 8. Capsule thin, the upper 

 part splitting off as a cap at maturity. 



Leaves short, not exceeding the fully opened flowers 1. L. rediviva. 



Leaves exceeding the flowers. 



Leaves all basal, a pair of short bracts on the stem. 



Sepals entire, % in. or more long 2. L. nevadensis. 



Sepals glandular-toothed, less than l A in. long 3. L. pygmaea. 



Leaves 2 to 5 in a whorl midway of the stem 4. L. triphylla. 



1. L. rediviva var. yosemitana K. Brandegee. Yosemite 

 Bitter-root. Leaves thick and fleshy, spatulate or narrowly 

 oblong, mostly ^ to 1 in. long, crowded on the summit of 

 a thick fleshy root. Flowers solitary and terminal on short 

 erect stalks, overtopping the leaves when fully opened. 

 Sepals mostly 2 to 4, oblong, acute, pinkish, glandular- 

 margined. Petals 4 to 12, white, probably varying to rose- 

 color, l / 2 to 24 in. long. Stamens 15 to 22. Style-branches 

 4 or 5. 



The Bitter-root, which is said to be used by the Indians 

 for food, is of wide distribution in western North America, 



