80 PURSLANE FAMILY. 



1. PORTULACA, PURSLANE. (Old Latin name of unknown mean- 

 ing.) Flowering all summer. (Lessons, Figs. 272, 404.) 



P. oleracea, Linn. Coaimom P. Very .smooth, with prostrate stems, 

 obovale or wedge-shaped leaves, and small, sessile flowers opening only in 

 bright sunshine and for a short time ; the petals pale yellow. The com- 

 monest garden weed, sometimes used as a pot-herb. There is a cultivated 

 form with much stronger and erect stems, and larger ajid lighter-colored 

 leaves, excellent as a pot-herb. Eu. 



P. grand/flora, Lindl. Rose Moss. Cult, from S. Amer. and thriving 

 in the hottest sand, bearing large and handsome red, yellow, or white 

 flowers, single or double, and short terete leaves. 



2. TALINUM. (Name unexplained.) One wild species in some 

 places. 



T. teretif61iuin, Pursh. Terete-leavkd T. Low and smooth, with 

 thick and fleshy root ; stems short ; leaves crowded, linear, terete ; peduncle 

 slender, naked, many-flowered ; petals pink ; style equaling stamens. 

 Rocks or sands Peun., W. and S. Flowering all summer. 2/ 



3. CALANDRINIA. (Named for a Swiss botanist, Calandrini.) 

 Cultivated for ornament in gardens ; flowering all summer. 



* Erect (1°-1|° high). 



C. disco/or, Schrad. Very glabrous, making a rosette of fleshy spatu- 

 late leaves at the root (these glaucous above and tinged with purple 

 beneath), and sending up a naked flower-stem, bearing a raceme of large, 

 rose-purple flowers, 2' in diameter. Cult, as an annual, from Chile. 



C. grandifldra, Lindl. Somewhat woody ; leaves mostly radical, fleshy, 

 rhomboid ; rosy flowers, 2' diameter, in a loose, naked, raceme. A half- 

 hardy annual from Chile. 



* * Low (6' or less) and spreading. 



C. Menz/'esii, Hook. Menzies' C. Leafy-stemmed ; leaves bright 

 green and tender, lance-spatulate ; crimson flowers nearly 1' broad, in a 

 short, leafy raceme. Oregon and California. ® 



C. umbe/tata, DC. Leaves mostly radical, linear, acute, hairy ; flowers 

 purple-crimson, in a close corymb, 1' diameter. (2) Chile ; half-hardy. 



4. CLAYTONIA, SPRING BEAUTY. (Named for John Clayton, 

 an early botanist in Virginia.) Low herbs, in rich land, 



* Stem simple from a round tuber; leaves separate. 2/ 



C. Virglnica, Linn. Spring Beautv. Leaves linear-lanceolate; 

 flowers rose-color with pink veins. One of the prettiest of early spring 

 flowers. 



C. Caroliniina, Michx. Broader-leaved S. Smaller than the pre- 

 ceding, with oblong-spatulate or lance-oblong leaves only 1' or 2' long. 

 In rich woods; commonest N. and along the Alleghanies. 



♦ * Root fibrous; leaves connate under the cluster of small, ichitish 



flowers. (T) 



C. perfo/idta, Donn. From the Pacific Coast and Mexico and Cuba, 

 with long-spatulate root-leaves, is grown somewhat as a salad plant. 



