228 PORTULACACE.E. 



Herbs low and succulent ; with alternate or irregularly 

 opposite entire leaves, which are either terete or plane, and 

 often furnished with tufts of bristles in their axils ; the up- 

 permost usually involucrate around the solitary or clustered 

 (sessile or pedicellate) flowers. Petals yellow, purple, or 

 rose-color, delicate, expanding in direct sunshine during the 

 forenoon, soon closing, and before evening colliquescent. 



Etymology, Geographical Distribution, &c. The old Latin name, 

 of uncertain meaning, for the Common Purslane, which has been used from 

 all antiquity as a potherb, and in salads. All are natives of the tropics and 

 of the southern border of the northern temperate zone ; but the common 

 Purslane has from early times been naturalized around gardens almost every- 

 where. Several showy species have recently become common in cultiva- 

 tion. P. pilosa is indigenous on our Southern frontiers ; and P. oleracea 

 itself is said to be truly wild in Arkansas and Texas. 



PLATE 99. Portulaca oleracea, Linn. ; — a branch in flower, of the. 

 natural size. 

 1. Diagram of the flower, aestivation, &c. 

 •2. Magnified stamen, outside view. 



3. Inside view of the same. 



4. Vertical section through the ovary and adherent calyx, &c, magnified. 



5. An ovule, more magnified. 



6. A capsule (pyxis), enlarged. 



7. Same, with the lid detached, showing the seeds. 



8. A seed, more magnified. 



9. Vertical section of the same through the e^bi'V". 



