PORTULACACEAE (PURSLANE FAMILY) 179 



more on young plants, spatulate or oblanceolate, with short thick petiole: 

 peduncle solitary, terminating the short lateral branchlets: flowers in dense 

 capitate clusters: sepals scarious, 4-8 mm. broad, as long as the obovate 

 petals: stamens and style conspicuously exserted. S. umbellaia. — North- 

 western Wyoming to Oregon. 



6. LEWISIA Pursh. Bittebroot 



Low somewhat fleshy perennials with a thick fleshy root and caudex (in 

 L. triphylla a small conn), the crown bearing a rosulate cluster of leaves and 

 short 1-flowered scapes or scapose stalked panicles. Flowers conspicuous, 

 varying from white to red. Sepals 2-8. Petals 3-16. Style-branches slender, 

 3-8. Capsule thin, globose-ovate, circumscissile near the base and splitting 

 upwards from the line of dehiscence. Seeds usually many. — Lewisia in part, 

 Caiandrinia, and also ErocaUis Rydb. 



Sepals large, 6-S 1. L. rediviva. 



Sepals smaller, only 2. 

 Root vertical, somewhat fusiform. 



Iieaves linear; seeds 60-80 • ■ • 2. L. minima. 



Leaves spatulate-lanceolate; seeds 10—20 . • • t • . 3. L. pj^gmaea* 



Root a small corm 4. L. triphylla. 



1. Lewisia rediviva Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 2: 368. 1814. Leaves densely 

 clustered, linear-oblong, subterete, smooth and glaucous: scapes but little 

 longer, jointed at the middle, and with 5-7 subulate scarious bracts verticil- 

 late at the joint: petals rose-colored or white. — Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, 

 Montana (in the Bitter Root Mountains), and westward; the specific name re- 

 fers to the fact that the roots are wonderfully tenacious of life; the state 

 flower of Montana. 



2. Lewisia minima A. Nels. Root short conical or napiform: leaves few- 

 several, narrowly linear, 4-7 cm. long: scapes rarely equalmg the leaves, each 

 with a small pair of bracts about one third its length from the base, gen- 

 iculately and divergently flexed near the node: sepals suboval, abruptly 

 acuminated into a short tooth, sometimes with one or two smaller lateral 

 ; teeth, no glandulosity: petals white: capsule large: seeds smooth and shiny, 

 60-80 'in each capsule. (Oreobroma minima A. Nels. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 

 27: 260. 1900.)— Yellowstone Park. 



3. Lewisia pygmaea (Gray) Robins. Syn. Fl. 1 : 268. 1897. Root fusiform 

 with a thickened farinaceous caudex: leaves broadly linear to spatulate or 

 lancerpblong: scapes mostly well surpassing the leaves: sepals somewhat 

 truncate, erose-dentate, with gland-tipped teeth: petals 6-8, rose-red: ovules 

 and seeds 10-20. Caiandrinia pygmaea. — Alpine; in our range and north- 

 ward and westward. 



4. Lewisia triphylla (Wats.) Robins. 1. c. Stems slender, from a small 

 globular corm: cauline leaves a pair or usually a whorl of 3, linear, sessile, 

 3-5 cm. long: racemose cyme several-flowered; the pedicels slender, erect in 

 fruit: petals 3-10, about 4 mm. long: capsule oblong-conical. (Claytonia tri- 



?hylla Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 10: 345. 1875; ErocaUis triphylla Rydb. Bull, 

 'orr. Bot. Club 33: 140. 1906.) This plant has the appearance of a true Clay- 

 tonia and would be placed in that genius but for the structure of the capsule, 

 — Subalpine; from Colorado northward and west to California and Washington. 



7. PORTULACA L. Purslane 



Fleshy diffuse or ascending annuals with terminal or axillary ephemera][ 

 yellow flowers. Sepals 2, united below and adnate to the ovary, the free uppei 

 portion at length deciduous. Petals 4-6. Stamens 7-20. Capsule circum- 

 scissile near the middle. 



1. Portulaca oleracea L. Sp. PI. 445. 1763. Glabrous; stems terete: leaves 

 cuneate, obtuse: calyx-lobes ovate, acute: stamens 7-12: style-lobes 5-6: 



