90 CARYOPHYLLACE^E. (PINK FAMILY.) 



pod ; petals pale ; seeds obovate-rounded and roughened with points, wingless or 

 narrow-winged. (Spergularia salina, Presl. Tissa marina, Britt.) Brack- 

 ish sands, etc., coast of N. Eng. to Va., and southward. A form with smooth 

 seeds is var. LEIOSPERMA, N. E. Brown. (S. media, Presl.) (Eu.) 



Var. (?) minor, Watson. Small, ascending or decumbent ; flowers smaller, 

 on shorter pedicels (rarely 2" long), the sepals and pod 1-1^" long; seeds 

 wingless, usually papillose. Coast of N. H. and Mass. 



3. B. bore alls, Watson. Diffusely branched, glabrous ; pedicels usually 

 2 - 4" long ; petals white ; pod ovate, 2" long, about twice longer than the 

 sepals ; seeds usually wingless, smooth or nearly so. (Tissa salina, Britt.) 

 On the coast, E. Maine to Labrador. 



12. SPERGULA, L. SPURRET. 



Stamens 5 or 10. Styles 5. The 5. valves of the pod opposite the sepals 

 Embryo spirally annular. Leaves in whorls. Otherwise as in Buda. (Name 

 from spargo, to scatter, from the seeds.) 



S. ARVENSIS, L. (CORN SPURREY.) Annual; leaves numerous in the 

 whorls, thread-shaped (1 -2' long) ; stipules minute ; flowers white, in a stalked 

 pauicled cyme ; seeds rough. Grain-fields. (Adv. from Eu.) 



ORDER 16. PORTULACACEJE. (PURSLANE FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with succulent leaves, and regular but unsymmetrical flowers, 

 viz., sepals fewer than the petals ; the stamens opposite the petals when oj 

 the same number, but often indefinite ; otherwise nearly as Chickweeds. 

 Sepals 2. Petals 5, or sometimes none. Stamens mostly 5-20. Styles 

 2-8, united below, or distinct, stigmatic along the inside. Pod 1-celled, 

 with few or many campylotropous seeds rising on stalks from the base. 

 Embryo curved around mealy albumen. Insipid and innocent herbs, 

 with entire leaves. Corolla opening only in sunshine, mostly ephemeral, 

 then shrivelling. 



1. Portulaca. Stamens 7 - 20, on the partly adherent calyx Pod opening by a lid. 



2. Talinum. Stamens more numerous than the petals, hypogynous Calyx deciduous. 



Pod many-seeded: 



3. Claytonia. Stamens as many as the hypogynous petals, and attached to their base. 



Calyx persistent. Pod 3 - 6-seeded. 



1. PORTULACA, Tourn. PURSLANE. 



Calyx 2-cleft ; the tube cohering with the ovary below. Petals 5, rarely 6. 

 inserted on the calyx with the 7-20 stamens, fugacious. Style mostly 3-8- 

 parted. Pod 1-celled, globular, many-seeded, opening transversely, the upper 

 part (with the upper part of the calyx) separating as a lid. Fleshy animals, 

 with mostly scattered leaves. (An old Latin name, of unknown meaning.) 



P OLERA.CEA, L. (COMMON PURSLANE.) Prostrate, very smooth ; leaves 

 obovate or wedge-form ; flowers sessile (opening only in sunny mornings) ; 

 sepals keeled; petals pale yellow; stamens 7-12; style deeply 5-6-parted; 

 flower-bud flat and acute. Cultivated and waste grounds ; common. Seem- 

 ingly indigenous west and southwestward. (Nat. from Eu.) 



1. P. rettisa, Engelm. Leaves often retuse ; calyx-lobes obtuse in the 

 bud; petals small or minute; style shorter, 3- 4-cleft; seeds larger, sharply 



