2. O. Rafinésquii, Engelm. Prostrate, deep green; joints broadly obovate or orbicular (3–5´ long); leaves (3–4´´ long), spreading; bristles bright red-brown, with a few small spines and a single strong one (9–12´´ long) or none; flowers yellow (2½–3½´ broad), sometimes with a reddish centre; petals 10–12; fruit 1½´ long, with an attenuated base.—Sterile soil, Nantucket and southward along the coast to Fla., and in the Mississippi valley, from Mich. to Minn., and south to Ky. and Ark.
[*][*] Very spiny, fruit dry and prickly.
3. O. Missouriénsis, DC. Prostrate, joints light green, broadly obovate, flat and tuberculate (2–6´ long), leaves small (1½–2´´ long); their axils armed with a tuft of straw-colored bristles and 5–10 slender radiating spines (1–2´ long); flowers light yellow (2–3´ broad), fruit with spines of variable length.—Wisc. to Mo., westward across the plains, very variable.
4. O. frágilis, Haw. Subdecumbent; joints small (1–2´ long or less), ovate, compressed or tumid, or even terete; leaves hardly 1´´ long, red; bristles few, larger spines 1–4, cruciate, with 4–6 smaller white radiating ones below; flowers yellow.—Minn. to Iowa and Kan., and westward.
Order 47. FICOÍDEÆ.
A miscellaneous group, chiefly of fleshy or succulent plants, with mostly opposite leaves and no stipules. Differing from Caryophyllaceæ and Portulacaceæ by having the ovary and capsule 2–several-celled, and the stamens and petals sometimes numerous, as in Cactaceæ (but the latter wanting in most of the genera), seeds, as in all these orders, with the slender embryo curved about mealy albumen. Our genera are apetalous and with the calyx free from the ovary.
1. Sesuvium. Calyx-lobes 5, petaloid. Stamens 5–60. Capsule circumscissile. Succulent.
2. Mollugo. Sepals 5. Stamens 3 or 5. Capsule 3-valved. Not succulent.
1. SESÙVIUM, L. Sea Purslane.
Calyx 5-parted, purplish inside, persistent, free. Petals none. Stamens 5–60, inserted on the calyx. Styles 3–5, separate. Pod 3–5-celled, many-seeded, circumscissile, the upper part falling off as a lid.—Usually prostrate maritime herbs, with succulent stems, opposite leaves, and axillary or terminal flowers. (An unexplained name.)