EDIBLE STEMS AND LEAVES 



used it extensively.^ Other species of Amaranths 

 have been similarly turned to account. 



This little course in wild pot-herbs may now be 

 closed with mention of three members of the Portu- 

 laca family. These plants are marked by smooth, 

 succulent, thickish leaves, and though humble herbs, 

 they are usually found, when found at all, in sufficient 

 abundance to be very noticeable. Most familiar is 

 the little prostrate plant common everywhere in 

 fields and waste places, called Purslane {Portulaca 

 oleracea, L.). It is generally regarded by Ameri- 

 cans as a weed and provokes the temper by its stub- 

 born persistence in turning up after it has appar- 

 ently been eradicated. It has, however, held quite 

 a respectable social position abroad, where garden- 

 ers have cultivated it and developed it as a whole- 

 some vegetable useful not only as a pot-herb but for 

 salads and pickles. On the Pacific slope a cousin of 

 the Purslane, known as Miner's or Indian Lettuce 

 {Montia perfoliata, Howell), is abundant in shady 

 places. It is easily recognized by clustered, long- 

 stalked, fleshy root-leaves, rhomboidal in outline, 

 from among which a flower stalk rises to the height 

 of several inches. This is terminated by a raceme 

 of tiny white flowers beneath which a pair of oppo- 



2 Lumholtz, "New Trails in Mexico." 



129 



