29 
A REARRANGEMENT OF AMERICAN 
PORTULACE. 
By Tuomas HoweEtu. 
Tur Family of Portulaces is a very natural one, and 
the relations between genus and genus are very close; and 
the plants not being well suited to herbarium study, on 
account of their succulent texture, authors have in many 
eases failed to bring out the real characters by which the 
genera may be most readily distinguished. For many years 
past, the botanists who have had new species to deal with, 
have referred them to old genera, not venturing to propose 
new ones, until now the books and papers relating to these 
plants present many incongruities, according to the views 
of field botanists who are better acquainted with the real 
characteristics of the plants. 
The genera are fairly represented, and the species quite 
numerous, in those portions of the West which I have had 
the fortune to become familiar with; and I submit the 
following scheme of our western genera and species. This 
is based on a number of characters of fruit, and matters of 
habit which were not known to others who have written 
upon this family. 
Four different types of fruit-structure separate our genera 
into as many quite natural groups. 
Grovr I. Shrub; pericarp double, z. ¢., with 3-valved epicarp and ~ 
6-valved endocarp. 
1. TALINOPSIS, Gray, Pl. Wright. i. 14. Sepals 2, mem- 
branaceous, persistent. Petals 5. Stamens ©. Style 
_ B-cleft. Seeds uncinate-areuate. 
1. T. rrurescens, Gray, 1. ¢. 15. Single species, of Texas 
and New Mexico, and very distinct from all other genera. 
Eryruea. Vol. I, No. 2 [1 Feb., 1893]. 
