GENUS <;>. 



PURSLANE FAMILY 



4. Portulaca grandiflora Hook. Garden Portu- 



laca or Purslane. Sun-plant. Fig. 1748. 

 Portulaca grandiflora Hook. Bot. Mag. pi. 2885. 1829. 



Ascending or spreading, sometimes densely pilose, 

 but often with but a few scattered hairs and tufts of 

 others in the axils. Branches 6'-i2 f long; leaves alter- 

 nate, and clustered at the ends of the branches, terete, 

 i'-i' long, about i" wide; flowers i'-2' broad, pink, 

 yellow, red, or white, very showy, open in sunshine 

 only; sepals broad, obtuse, scarious-margined; petals 

 obovate ; capsule ovoid ; seeds gray, shining. 



In waste places, occasionally escaped from gardens. 

 Introduced from South America. Summer. Cultivated in 

 a large number of forms differing in color and size of flow- 

 ers. Rose- or Kentucky-moss. Showy portulaca. French 

 pussley. Wax-pinks. Mexican rose. 



Family 23. ALSINACEAE Wahl. Fl. Suec. 2 : LXXIV. 1824. 



CHICK WEED FAMILY. 



Annual or perennial herbs with opposite entire leaves, estipulate or stipulate, 

 and mostly small perfect flowers, solitary or in cymes or umbels. Calyx of 4 or 5 

 sepals, imbricated, at least in the bud, separate to the base, or nearly so. Petals 

 as many as the sepals, not clawed, rarely wanting. Stamens twice as many as the 

 sepals, or fewer, inserted at the base of the sessile ovary, or on a small disk; 

 filaments distinct, or cohering below ; anthers introrse, longitudinally dehiscent. 

 Ovary usually i-celled; styles 2-5, distinct; ovules several or numerous, amphi- 

 tropous or campylotropous, borne on a central column. Fruit a capsule, dehiscent 

 by valves or by apical teeth. Embryo mostly curved and with incumbent 

 cotyledons. 



About 32 genera and 500 species, of wide distribution, most abundant in temperate regions. 

 Styles separate to the base. 

 Stipules wanting. 



Plants not fleshy; disk of the flower inconspicuous or none. 

 Petals deeply 2-cleft or 2-parted (rarely none). 



Capsule ovoid or oblong, dehiscent by valves. i. Alsine. 



Capsule cylindric, commonly curved, dehiscent by teeth. 2. Cerastium. 



Petals entire or emarginate (rarely none). 



Capsule cylindric. 3. Holosteum. 



Capsule ovoid or oblong. 



Styles as many as the sepals, alternate with them,, 4. Sagina 



Styles fewer than the sepals. 



Seeds not appendaged by a strophiole. 5. Arenaria. 



Seeds strophiolate. 6. Moehringia, 



Plants fleshy, maritime; disk conspicuous, 8-io-lobed. 7. Honkenya. 



Stipules present, scarious. 



Styles and capsule-valves 5. 8. Spergula, 



Styles and capsule-valves 3. 9. Tissa. 



Styles united below; southwestern herb with subulate leaves. 10. Loeflingia. 



i. ALSINE [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 274. 1753. 



[SXELLARIA L. Sp. PI. 421. I753-] 



Mostly annual, generally diffuse herbs, with cymose white flowers. Sepals 5, rarely 4. 

 Petals of the same number, usually deeply 2-cleft, or 2-parted, white in our species, rarely 

 none. Stamens 10 or fewer, hypogynous. Ovary i-celled, several or many-ovuled; styles 

 commonly 3, rarely 4-5, usually opposite the sepals. Capsule globose, ovoid or oblong, 

 dehiscent by twice as many valves as there are styles. Seeds smooth or roughened, globose 

 or compressed. [Greek, grove, the habitat of some species.] 



Species about 75, widely distributed, most abundant in temperate or cold climates. Linnaeus 

 divided the ancient genus Alsine into Alsine and Stellaria, united again by subsequent authors. 

 Type species : Alsine media L. 



Styles 5 ; leaves ovate, \'-z' long. i. A. aquatica. 



Styles 3, rarely 4. 



Leaves broad, ovate, ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate. 

 Plants glabrous, or with a few scattered hairs. 



Flowers few, terminal ; leaves ovate, 2" -3" long. 2. A. humifusa. 



Cymes lateral; leaves oblong, s"-i2" long. 3. A.uliginosa. 



Stems with i or 2 pubescent lines ; petioles often ciliate. 



