PLATE 18. 



PURSLANE, Portulaca oleracea, L. 



Other English names: Pusley, Wild Portulaca. 



Introduced. Annual, of tropical origin, now found in gardens in most 

 parts of Canada. Seeds germinating rather late. A fleshy prostrate per- 

 fectly smooth plant, freely branching from a single central root, with red- 

 dish stems and dark green alternate, wedge-shaped leaves mainly clustered 

 at the ends of the branches. Flowers sessile, solitary, about ^ inch across, 

 with a two-cleft calyx and 5 small yellow petals ; stamens 7 to 12, style 4 to 

 6-cleft. Capsule membranous, many-seeded, the top coming off as the lid 

 of a bos. Seeds [Plate 53, fig. 15 — natural size and enlarged 8 times] black, 

 roughened but shining, about iV of' an . inch in diameter, narrowly 

 kidney-shaped, much as in the Pink family and, like the seeds of most of the 

 members of that family, having the embryo curved and running around the 

 outside of the seed. 



Time of Flowering : July till frost, and seeds ripening for the greater 

 part of that time. 



Propagation : By seeds. The fleshy leaves and stems give it such vital- 

 ity that flowering plants hoed out and left on the ground will continue ripen- 

 ing seeds for weeks. 



Occurrence : In rich land and particularly in gardens. Most abundant 

 in the Eastern Provinces ; but being constantly introduced into new localities 

 \yith seeds. 



Injury: Although Purslane is an annual without any running root, and 

 does not appear until late in the season, it is perhaps more difficult to extir- 

 pate than almost any other weed found on rich soil. 



Remedy : Constant shallow hoeing, particularly when the young plants 

 first appear, is the only way to control this weed. If left until the plants 

 have attained a large size and the flowers have formed, they must be raked 

 up after hoeing and removed from the land. 



THE PEA FAMILY, LEGUMIXOS.L 



This large and important family of plants is well represented in Can- 

 ada and contains many useful food plants, sucli as peas and licans and the 

 clovers, but also some very poisonous species, as the Loco Weeds, Oxytropis, 

 and the Golden Bean, TJwrmopxix, of the western plains, as well as a small 

 number of farm weeds of secondary importance. All plants of the Pen fam- 

 ily serve a useful purpose as collectors of nitrogen from the air, which they 

 render available for plant footl. 



Every species can be recognized as belonging to this family by one or 

 other of two characters, both of which are peculiar to it, namely, a butterfly- 

 shaped corolla, such as we find on a large scale in the Sweet Pea of our gar- 

 dens, and, for a fruit, a pod like that of the same plant or of the garden pea, 

 technically termed a legume. By far the larger number of the plants have 

 both characters combined. 



Mention may be made of the following, which are sometimes detrimental 

 in farm lands. The Wild T.\re, Vicia nngiistifolia, Roth, is an introduced 

 annual in the EaWcrn Provinces, wliicli, nn account of its early ripening, is 



41 



