PORTULACACEAE 
51 
ovate or ovate-lanceolate; involucre 3 to several-flowered; calyx about 
2.4 cm. long.—S. Cal. 
2. M. laevis (Benth.) Curran. Wishbone Bush. Stems ascending; 
leaves round-ovate to cordate; involucre 1 to 3-flowered; calyx about 1 
cm. long.—S. Cal. 
AIZOACEAE. CARPET-WEED FAMILY 
Ours prostrate or decumbent herbs. Flowers perfect and regular, soli¬ 
tary or clustered.—Species about 450, all continents. 
1. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM L. Fig Marigold. Ice-Plant 
Our herbs. Stems and leaves very succulent. Flowers axillary and 
terminal. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary. Petals linear, numerous, in¬ 
serted with the numerous stamens on the tube of the calyx. (Greek 
mesembria, mid-day, and anthemon, blossom.) 
1. M. aequilaterale Haw. Sea Fig. Stems 1 to 2 m. long, the plants 
forming extensive mats; leaves 3-sided, 3.6 to 4.8 cm. long; flowers fra¬ 
grant and showy ; petals bright rose-purple.—Dunes and cliffs near the 
sea. 
PORTULACACEAE. PURSLANE FAMILY 
Low herbs with more or less fleshy entire leaves and regular flowers. 
Sepals 2. Petals commonly 5. Stamens 3 to 20. Ovary superior, 1-celled. 
Style-branches commonly 3. Fruit a capsule, 3-valved or opening by a 
lid.—About 150 species in the warmer dry and arid regions. 
Capsule 2 or 3-valved. 
Style 1, stigmas 2; sepals plane...1. Calyptridium. 
Style branches 3 ; sepals more or less concave. 
Flowers in leafy racemes ; petals commonly red, showy ; stamens mostly 
5 or more ; seeds numerous....2. Calandrinia. 
Flowers in naked or bracteate racemes ; petals white or pinkish ; stamens 
5 (or 3) ; seeds few (3 to 6).3. Montia. 
Capsule circumscissile. 
Sepals 2 to 8, distinct and free from the ovary, persistent.4. Lewisia. 
Sepals 2, united below and partly adherent to the ovary, the free upper portion 
deciduous ... 5. Portulaca. 
1. CALYPTRIDIUM Nutt. 
Herbs with alternate or basal leaves and small flowers in panicles or 
in solitary or clustered scorpioid spikes. Stamens 1, 2 or 3. Seeds few 
to many. (Greek kaluptra, a calyptra, the petals closing over each other 
and carried up on the capsule.) 
1. C. umbellatum (Torr.) Greene. Pussy Paws. Stems several, 
scape-like, 7 to 36 cm. high, arising from a dense rosette of spatulate 
leaves; cauline leaves few and similar or none; spikes in a terminal 
umbel or whorl; petals enfolding the 3 stamens, the fourth stamen en¬ 
folding the style.—Fine gravelly or sandy soil, open places in the moun¬ 
tains. 
2. CALANDRINIA H. B. K. 
Low fleshy annuals with alternate leaves. Flowers red (rarely white), 
lasting but one day. Stamens 7 to 13, rarely fewer. Seeds numerous, 
black and shining. (J. L. Calandrini, Swiss botanist.) 
