EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



397 



with few or numerous seeds, attached to a central basilar placenta, 

 often by slender funiculi. Seed and embryo as in Caryophyllaceae. 

 — Ex. Portulaca (Purslane, Fig. 389, 588) Claytonia. Chiefly 

 natives of dry places in the warmer parts of the world ; except 

 Claytonia. Insipid or slightly bitter : several are pot-herbs, as the 

 Purslane. Some are ornamental. The farinaceous root of Lewisia 



7.8 



730 732 733 731 733 73S 



rediviva, a native of the dry interior plains of Oregon, is an impor- 

 tant article of food with the natives. 



770. Ord. Mcsembryanthcmacea: (Fig-Marigold Family) consists of 



succulent plants, with showy flowers opening only under bright sun- 

 shine, containing an indefinite number of petals and stamens, and a 

 many-celled and many-seeded capsule : otherwise much as in Caryo- 

 phyllacese. — Ex. Mesembryanthemum (Fig-Marigold, Ice-plant); 

 chiefly natives of the Cape of Good Hope, flourishing in the most 

 arid situations. 



771. Ol'd. MalVRCCai (Mallow Family). Herbs, shrubs, or rarely 

 trees. Leaves alternate, palmately veined, with stipules. Flowers 

 regular, often with an involucel, forming a double calyx. Calyx 

 mostly of five sepals, more or less united at the base, valvate in 



FIG. 728 Flower of the Turslane ; the calyx cut away at the point where it adheres to the 

 ovary, and laid open 720. A capsule (pyxis) of the same, transversely dehiscent 730. Clay- 

 tonia Virginica (Spring-Beauty) 731 Diagram of the flower 732. Young fruit and the per- 

 sistent two-leaved calyx. 733. Section of the dehiscing capsule. 734. A sued. 735 The 

 same, vertically divided. 736. The embr} o, detached. 



34 



