MACLOSKIE: PORTULACACK/E. 381 



2. GRAHAMIA Gill. (Xeranthus Miers.) 



Shrub, with alternate oblong, fleshy leaves, and stipules resolved into 

 hairs. Flowers terminal, solitary, handsome. Sepals 2, rigid, striate, sca- 

 rious-margined. Bracts numerous, imbricate, scarious. Stamens many, 

 borne on the base of the petals. Style 4-5 cleft. Seeds winged. 

 Species i, viz. : 



G. BRACTEATA Gill. 



Flowers white, the filaments reddish below. 

 N. Patagon. 



3. MONTIA Linn. Water-chickweed. 



Small, glabrous, aquatic annuals, tufted and freely branched. Leaves 

 opposite, spatulate or obovate. Flowers nodding, solitary or racemed. 

 Sepals 3. Petals ovate-oblong, united at the base. Stamens 2-3. Cap- 

 sule 3-valved. 



Species i, in many local varieties, which may be regarded as separate 

 species ; in Eurasia, N. Afr., N. Amer. and by the Andes to Chili ; also 

 in Austral, and N. Zeal, and Kerguelen's I. 



i. M. FONTANA Linn. 



Inflorescence axillary and in terminal, panicled racemes. (Fig. 21 in 

 Eng. & Prantl, iii, \b, p. 58.) Falklands ; Staaten I.; W. Magellan, at 

 400 meters elevation. (Dusen.) 



2. M. GIBBA Griseb. 



Sepals obscurely 3-lobed, gibbous on the back. 

 S. Chili. 



4. PORTULACA Linn. Purslane. 



Spreading, much-branched, fleshy herbs, with terminal flowers. Sepals 

 united partly to each other and to the ovary. Petals 4-6, mostly 5, inserted 

 on the calyx, fugacious. Stamens y-many, on the calyx. Style 3-9- 

 parted. Ovules many. Capsule circumscissile. 



Species 20, tropical and subtrop. 



i. P. OLERACEA Linn. 



Leaves alternate or crowded at the ends of the branches, glabrous, 

 fleshy, obovate-cuneate, rounded at the top. Flowers yellow ; sepals 

 broad, keeled, acutish. (Widely distributed in warm climates.) 



N. Patagon., along Rio Negro., common. 



