WEEDS OP THE PURSLANE FAMILY 



77 



36. POBTULAC* OLEBACEA L. I'nrsla lie. PllSSley. (A. I. I.) 



Prostrate, smooth, freely branching from ;i deep central root ; branches 

 4-10 inches long; leaves alternate, wedge-shaped, rounded at apex. Flow- 

 ers pale yellow, sessile in the axils. Pods globular, opening by a little lid. 

 Seeds very small, black, kidney-shaped, marked With a tine network. 

 (Figs. 13, c; U.) 



Very common in gardens, dooryards and cultivated grounds, 

 especially in sandy and rich soils. May-Nov. Flowers numerous, 



opening only in the 

 morning sunshine, then 

 closing once for all. In 

 England purslane is used 

 extensively as a pot-herb 

 and for salads, and serves 

 as does parsley to garnish 

 dishes of meats, etc. 

 Hogs everywhere are 

 vrvy fond of it. It is at- 

 tacked by a white mold 

 which in rainy seasons 

 serves to keep it in check. 

 Beneath its fleshy foliage 

 it harbors insects of 

 many kinds, among 

 which are the melon 

 plant louse and the corn- 

 root louse. Onion and 

 melon raisers have much 

 trouble with it, as it 

 grows rapidly and ripens its seeds after cultivation of the crops 

 has ceased. Remedies: close hoe cultivation, especially xn-y early 

 and again late in the season; seeding with winter animals after 

 hoed crops. 



Fig. 44. 



/, seed; 2, fruit or pyxis closed; 3, same open. 

 (After Vasey.) 



Tin: ]>jm< Famjltl— CARYOPHYLLACE^E. 



Annual or perennial herbs with the joints of the stems often 

 swollen and sometimes sticky; leaves opposite, entire. Flowers 

 usually either solitary on long peduncles or numerous in flat- 

 topped cynics: sepals 4 or 5, separate or united into a tube; petals 

 as many as the sepals or none; stamens twice as many as sepals or 

 fewer; pistils 1. 1-cellcd. the ovules united to a central column. 

 Fruit usually a capsule opening by valves on the sides. 



