148 Portulacaceae 
Ovary usually superior, 3—5-celled; ovules numerous in each cell (ours). Fruit a cap- 
sule, loculicidal (ours) or circumscissile. 
MOLLUGO ‘CARPET-WEED 
Mostly annual (ours so). Stipules deciduous. Flowers whitish. Perianth 5-parted; 
segments persistent, scarious-margined, all alike. Stamens when 3 alternate with the cells 
of the ovary, when 5 alternate with the perianth-segments. Ovary ovoid or globose. Cap- 
sule usually 3-valved. Seed small. (The Latin name, related to L. mollis=soft; be- 
cause they form a carpet-like growth.) E. 
M. verticillata L. 
PORTULACACEAE Purslane Family 
Herbs, low, generally fleshy or succulent, rarely somewhat woody. Leaves alternate 
or opposite. Flowers regular, perfect, unsymmetric, axillary or terminal. Sepals usually 2, 
in some more. Petals 0—many, entire or emarginate. Stamens as many as the petals or 
fewer, rarely more, opposite the petals when of the same number; filaments filiform. 
Ovary superior, |-celled; placenta central, free; styles 2—9-cleft or -divided. Fruit a 
capsule, membranous or crustaceous, circumscissile or 2—-3-valved. Seeds 2 to many, 
reniform-globose or compressed. 
A. Sepals not scarious; styles or stigmas 3 or more. 
B. Ovary quite free from the calyx; leaves either mostly basal or mostly scattered 
along the stem. 
C. Caudex beset with short subulate spines which are the persistent midribs of for- 
_mer leaves; leaves terete, about 12 mm. long; sepals deciduous; stamens 20—30. 
TALINUM (p. 149) 
CC. Caudex not beset with spines or none; leaves either not terete or else more 
than 12 mm. long; sepals persistent; stamens fewer (except in some species of 
Lewisia). 
D. Leaves either in a basal tuft or scattered along the stem; sepals 2—3; petals 
2—5; stamens 3—10; styles or stigmas 3; capsule not circumscissile, 3-valved 
from apex. 
E. Most of the leaves scattered along the stem, alternate, linear to lanceolate. 
F. Leaves not scarious nor clasping at base, the upper linear, the lower 
lanceolate and petioled; stamens 3 or more; seed minutely tuberculate. 
CALANDRINIA (p. 149) 
FF. Leaves somewhat scarious and clasping at base, all linear and sessile; 
stamens 3; seed quite smooth. MontIA (p. 150) 
EE. Leaves not as above in all characters. 
G. Stems and leaves from a subterranean corm or the crown of a fleshy 
root; most of the leaves at the surface of the ground; involucre-leaves not 
united; either petals not twice as long as the sepals or involucre-leaves 
oblong or narrower. CLAYTONIA (p. 149) 
GG. Plants without corms or fleshy roots- (except M. sibirica, which has 
a fleshy root-crown); leaves scattered along a stem above the ground, 
or involucre-leaves united, or petals about thrice as long as the sepals and 
mv>lucre-leaves oblong. MontTiA (p. 150) 
DD. Leaves in a tuft on the top of the caudex; sepals 2—8; petals 10-—16; 
stamens 5——50; styles or stigmas 3—-8; capsule circumscissile. 
LeEwIsiA (p. 151) 
