PURSLANE FAMILY. Portulacaceae. 
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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-seeded 
capsule. Pusley, or Purslane, is one of the commonest 
garden weeds; everybody knows how difficult it is to keep 
the spreading rosettes out of gravel walks, and we are all 
familiar with the gaudy, ephemeral flowers of the culti- 
vated Portulaca. The Purslane-tree, or Spek-boom, of 
South Africa is often the principal food of elephants and 
its foliage gives the characteristic coloring to the landscape. 
There are several kinds of Montia, closely related to 
Claytonia, mostly natives of North America, rather 
succulent plants, very smooth and often with a “‘bloom.” 
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. 
ica eke The Indians gather these pretty succu- 
Moéntia parvifléra 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. j49ce bunch, with 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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