PURSLANE FAMILY 
( Portulacacece ) 
(A) Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica ), although 
very delicate in appearance, is among our earliest flow¬ 
ering plants. 
The weak stem is usually very crooked and is often 
prostrate on the ground; two linear-lanceolate leaves 
clasp it oppositely about half way up. The opened 
flowers, somewhat less than inch across, have five petals, 
two sepals and five golden stamens that mature before 
the stigma. It is found in moist woods from Me. to 
Mich, and south to the Gulf. 
(B) Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) (European), 
has a prostrate, juicy stem and thick fleshy leaves; the 
latter are wedge-shaped with rounded ends. The stem 
is very branching and spreads or radiates from the root. 
The flowers are tiny, solitary and yellowish, seated in 
the whorls of leaves that terminate the branches. 
Found in waste places anywhere and possibly indigenous 
in tiie Southwest. 
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