PORTULACACEAE (PURSLANE FAMILY) 153 



the corn root louse ; also it is sometimes attacked by a white 

 mold, which may make it a menace to better plants. 



Stems four inches to more than a foot in length, prostrate, thick, 

 round, smooth, succulent, branching on all sides from the central 

 root and again often forking. Leaves, alternate, obovate or wedge- 

 shaped, with rounded tips, very small, thick, and fleshy, mostly 

 clustered at the ends of the branches. Both stems and leaves 

 often have a reddish tinge. Flowers solitary, sessile, about a 

 quarter-inch broad, opening only in the brightest sunshine ; sepals 

 two, broad, pointed, keeled ; four to six mostly five broadly 

 rounded yellow petals, soon falling away; stamens seven to 

 twelve; style five- or six-parted. 

 Capsule urn-shaped, one-celled, 

 membranous, many-seeded, open- 

 ing transversely and the top fall- 

 ing off like a lid ; when near 

 maturity, the plants can hardly 

 be touched without sowing these 

 seeds by hundreds. The weed 

 is most tenacious of life, often 

 readjusting itself after having 

 been torn up bodily, the fleshy 

 stems, and leaves sustaining it 

 while doing so, if not placed 

 where the feat is impossible. 

 (Fig. 103.) 



Means of control 



Killing while in the seedling 



stage by constant shallow hoeing ^ 



J . . 6 FIG. 103. Purslane (Portulaca ole- 



is the only way of vanquishing raced). x$. 



this weed. If old enough for seed- 

 cones to begin to form, plants should be removed from the soil, for 

 the stems and roots retain life enough to ripen and distribute seed. 

 Pigs are very fond of Purslane, and one of those greedy animals will 

 dispose of a considerable crop. Or the plants may be thrown on a 

 compost heap, where fermentation will destroy the vitality of the seeds. 



