Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 115 



PURSLANE FAMILY (Portulacaceae). 

 A small family of low herbs, with thick succulent 

 leaves and perfect but unsymmetrical flowers, that is 

 with unequal numbers of petals and sepals. 



SPRING BEAUTY (Claytonia virginica), although 

 very delicate in appearance, is among our earliest 

 flowering plants. It may be found blooming during 

 the cold wintry month of March, during tempestuous 

 April, as well as during the warmer May days. 



The beautiful flowers have a pale flush of pink, 

 with veins of deeper pink radiating from the yellow- 

 ish base. One would expect flowers blooming at this 

 season to be rather hardy, but we find this species 

 to be very frail; the flowers close almost immediately 

 upon being plucked, and only open during bright, 

 sunny weather. The weak stem is usually very crook- 

 ed and is often prostrate on the ground; two linear- 

 lanceolate leaves clasp it oppositely about half way 

 up. The flowers are in a loose, long-peduncled clus- 

 ter, the buds assuming a drooping position. The open- 

 ed flowers, somewhat less than inch across, have five 

 petals, two sepals and five golden stamens that ma- 

 ture before the stigma. It is found in moist woods 

 from Me. to Mich, and south to the Gulf. 



PURSLANE (Portulaca oleracea) (EUROPEAN). 



This is a very common weed, naturalized from the old 

 world. It has a prostrate, juicy stem and thick 

 fleshy leaves; the latter are wedge-shaped with 

 rounded ends. The stem is very branching and 

 spreads or radiates from the root in an attractive 

 circular form. The flowers are tiny, solitary and 

 yellowish, seated in the whorls of leaves that termin- 

 ate the branches. The five petals spread only in the 

 morning sunshine. Pound in waste places anywhere 

 and possibly indigenous in the Southwest. 



