PORTULACACE^E. (PURSLANE FAMILY.) 37 



ORDER 12. PORTULACACE^E. (PURSLANE FAMILY.) 



More or less succulent herbs, with simple and entire leaves (either 

 opposite or alternate) and regular but un symmetrical perfect flowers; 

 sepals (except in Lewisia) 2 ; petals 2 to 5 or more ; stamens opposite 

 the petals or numerous ; ovary one-celled, in fruit becoming capsular j 

 style 2 to 8-cleft ; stipules none or scarious or reduced to hairs. Flowers 

 open only in sunshine or bright daylight. 



* Sepals 2, united below and adherent to the ovary, the free upper portion at length 



deciduous. 



1. Portulaca. Stamens 7 to 20. Flowers solitary, yellow (in ours). Capsule opening by 



a lid. 



* * Sepals 2, distinct, persistent (deciduous in Talinum) : ovary free. 

 - Style 3-cleft : capsule 3-valved : sepals equal. 



2. Talinum. Stamens 10 to 30. Petals 5. Seeds numerous. 



3. Calandrinia. Stamens more than 5. Petals 5 or more. Seeds mostly smooth and 



shining. 



4. Claytonia. Stamens 5. Petals 5. Seeds smooth and shining. 



i- t- Style 2-cleft : capsule 2-valved : sepals unequal, hyaline. 



5. Spraguea. Stamens 3. Petals 4. Stems simple, scape-like. 



6. Calyptridium. Stamen 1. Petals 2. Stems branching, leafy. 



* * * Sepals 4 to 8, distinct, much imbricated. 



7. Leuisia. Stamens many. Style 3- to 8-cleft. Petals 8 to 16. Scapes 1-flowered. 



1. PORTULACA, Tourn. PURSLANE. 



Petals 4 to 6. Style deeply 3- to 8-cleft. Fleshy diffuse or ascending 

 annuals, with axillary or terminal ephemeral yellow (in ours) flowers. 



1. P. retusa, 1 Engelm. Stems somewhat ascending, sometimes covering 

 a space several feet in diameter : leaves flat, obovate to spatulate : sepals 

 obtuse, broadly carinate-winged : seeds tuberculate. S. W. Colorado and 

 southward. 



2. TALINUM, Adans. 



Distinguished from Calandrinia by the deciduous sepals, the style less deeply 

 3-cleft, the capsule 3-celled at base when young, and the seeds on a globular 

 stalked placenta. 



1. T. teretifolium, Pursh. Leafy stems low, tuberous at the base: 

 leaves linear, cylindrical : peduncle long and naked, bearing an open cyme of 

 pink flowers. In the mountains of Colorado and eastward. 



3. CALANDRINIA, HBK. 



Low succulent herbs, with radical leaves (in ours) and white to reddish 

 ephemeral flowers in bracteate racemes or panicles, or few upon short scape- 

 like stems. 



1 P. oleracea, L., is prostrate, not so green, with larger leaves, acute sepals, and seeds 

 more finely tuberculate. Common Purslane or Pig-weed ; naturalized near dwellings. 



