PORTULACACEAE (PURSLANE FAMILY) 179 



more on young plants, spatulate or oblanceolate, with short thick petiole: 

 peduncle solitary, terminating the short lateral branchlets: flowers in dense 

 capitate clusters: sepals scarious, 4-8 mm. broad, as long as the obqvate 

 petals: stamens and style conspicuously exserted. S. umbellata. North- 

 western Wyoming to Oregon. 



6. LEWISIA Pursh. BITTERROOT 



Low somewhat fleshy perennials with a thick fleshy root and caudex (in 

 L. triphylla a small corm), the crown bearing a rosulate cluster of leaves and 

 short 1-flowered scapes or scapose stalked panicles. Flowers conspicuous, 

 varying from white to red. Sepals 2-8. Petals 3-16. Style-branches slender, 

 3-8. Capsule thin, globose-ovate, circumscissile near the base and splitting 

 upwards from the line of dehiscence. Seeds usually many. Lewisia in part, 

 Calandrinia, and also Erocallis Rydb. 



large, 6-8 1. L. rediviva. 



Sepals smaller, only 2. 



Root vertical, somewhat fusiform. 



Leaves linear; seeds 60-80 . . . . . . . 2. L. minima. 



Leaves spatulate-lanceolate; seeds 10-20 3. L. pygmaea. 



Root a small corm . . . . . . . . . . 4. L. triphylla. 



1. Lewisia rediviva Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 2: 368. 1814. Leaves densely 

 clustered, linear-oblong, subterete, smooth and glaucous: scapes but little 

 longer, jointed at the middle, and with 5-7 subulate scarious bracts verticil- 

 late at the joint: petals rose-colored or white. Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, 

 Montana (in the Bitter Root Mountains), and westward; the specific name re- 

 fers to the fact that the roots are wonderfully tenacious of life; the state 

 flower of Montana. 



2. Lewisia minima A. Nels. Root short conical or napiform: leaves few- 

 several, narrowly linear, 4-7 cm. long: scapes rarely equaling the leaves, each 

 with a small pair of bracts about one third its length from the base, gen- 

 iculately and divergently flexed near the node: sepals suboval, abruptly 

 acuminated into a short tooth, sometimes with one or two smaller lateral 

 teeth, no glandulosity: petals white: capsule large: seeds smooth and shiny, 

 60-80 in each capsule. (Oreobroma minima. A. Nels. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 

 27: 260. 1900.) Yellowstone Park. 



3. Lewisia pygmaea (Gray) Robins. Syn. Fl. 1: 268. 1897. Root fusiform 

 with a thickened farinaceous caudex: leaves broadly linear to spatulate or 

 lance-oblong: scapes mostly well surpassing the leaves: sepals somewhat 

 truncate, erose-dentate. with gland-tipped teeth: petals 6-8, rose-red: ovules 

 and seeds 10-20. Calandrinia pygmaea. Alpine; in our range and north- 

 ward and westward. 



4. Lewisia triphylla (Wats.) Robins. 1. c. Stems slender, from a small 

 globular corm: cauline leaves a pair or usually a whorl of 3, linear, sessile, 

 3-5 cm. long: racemose cyme several-flowered; the pedicels slender, erect in 

 fruit: petals 3-10, about 4 mm. long: capsule oblong-conical. (Claytonia tri- 

 phylla Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 10: 345. 1875; Erocallis triphylla Rydb. Bull. 

 Torr. Bot. Club 33: 140. 1906.) This plant has the appearance of a true Clay- 

 tonia and would be placed in that genus but for the structure of the capsule. 

 Subalpine; from Colorado northward and west to California and Washington. 



7. PORTULACA L. PURSLANE 



Fleshy diffuse or ascending annuals with terminal or axillary ephemeral 

 yellow flowers. Sepals 2, united below and adnate to the ovary, the free upper 

 portion at length deciduous. Petals 4-6. Stamens 7-20. Capsule circum- 

 scissile near the middle. 



1. Portulaca oleracea L. Sp. PI. 445. 1753. Glabrous; stems terete: leaves 

 cuneate, obtuse: calyx-lobes ovate, acute: stamens 7-12: style-lobes 6-6: 



