MINER'S LETTUCE (Montia perfoliata, Howell). Flowers 

 small, white, in more or less interrupted racemes on stems a 

 few inches Jo a foot high. These stems bear just below the 

 flowers a pair of opposite leaves completely united at base 

 into a roundish disk or saucer. The plant is an annual, with 

 clustered root leaves more or less rhomboidal in outline, and 

 having long petioles. Common in shady places throughout 

 California, and as far north as British Columbia; blooming 

 from February to July. 



The succulence of the herbage of Montia perfoliata long ago 

 attracted the Indians who ate it both raw r and cooked as 

 greens. From them the w r hite pioneers took the hint, and in 

 mountain districts it is still used to some extent. I can 

 myself testify to its palatability when boiled and seasoned 

 with salt and pepper. Its use by the aborigines has given 

 rise to two common names, Squaw's Cabbage and Indian 

 Lettuce. Under the name of Winter Purslane it has been in- 

 troduced into English kitchen gardens' as a potherb and salad. 

 It has become naturalized in many parts of the world includ- 

 ing Cuba. 



Miner's Lettuce is closely related to the well-beloved Spring 

 Beauty of the East (Claytonia virginica). 

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