PURSLANE FAMILY. Portulacaceae. 



PURSLANE FAMILY. Portulacaceae. 



A rather small family, mostly American ; herbs, usually 

 with thick, succulent leaves and stems, with flowers open- 

 ing only in sunlight. They usually have only two sepals, 

 but the petals number from two to five or more; the sta- 

 mens are sometimes numerous, but when they are of the 

 same number as the petals they are opposite them; the 

 one-celled ovary is superior, becoming a many-seedec 

 capsule. Pusley, or Purslane, is one of the commonesl 

 garden weeds; everybody knows how difficult it is to keej 

 the spreading rosettes out of gravel walks, and we are al 

 familiar with the gaudy, ephemeral flowers of the culti 

 vated Portulaca. The Purslane-tree, or Spek-boom, o1 

 South Africa is often the principal food of elephants anc 

 its foliage gives the characteristic coloring to the landscape 



There are several kinds of Montia, closely related tc 

 Claytonia, mostly natives of North America, rathe 

 succulent plants, very smooth and often with a "bloom. 1 

 The flowers are white or pinkish, with two sepals; the five 

 petals, equal or somewhat unequal, separate or more or 

 less united at base; the stamens five or three; the style 

 branches three; the capsule with three valves and one to 

 three, shiny, black seeds, which when ripe are shot out of 

 the capsule by the elastic closing of the valves. 

 Miner' Lettu ^^ Indians gather these pretty succu-| 



Mdntia parvifldra lent little plants for salad and indeed the 

 White tender, bright-green leaves look as if they 



Spring, summer would taste very nice. They grow in a 

 West, except Ariz. j oose ] 3unc j 1> w jth several stems, a few 

 inches to a foot high. The root-leaves have long leaf 

 stalks and vary very much in size and shape, the earliest 

 being long and narrow, like little green tongues, but the 



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