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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order VII. PortulaceÆ.]

Herbs, usually fleshy and glabrous, occasionally clothed with long hairs. Leaves opposite or rarely alternate, entire, generally exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 2, rarely more, imbricate. Petals 4–5, hypogynous or rarely perigynous, free or united below. Stamens either equal in number to the petals and opposite to them or indefinite, often adnate to the base of the petals. Ovary free or rarely half-interior, 1-celled; style 3–8-fid; ovules few or many, affixed to a free central or basal placenta. Fruit a capsule, either dehiscing with as many valves as style-page 71branches, or opening by a transverse lid. Seeds 1 to many; embryo curved round a farinaceous albumen.

A small order, having its headquarters in America; found more sparingly in South Africa and Australia; decidedly rare in Asia, north Africa, and Europe. Genera 16; species about 125. Some of the American genera are shrubby; and the widely distributed Portulaca (naturalised in New Zealand) differs from the rest of the order in having perigynous petals and stamens, and a half-interior ovary. Of the New Zealand genera, Hectorella is endemic, Claytonia is mainly American, and Montia occurs in the temperate regions of both hemispheres.

Stems slender. Stamens 5, opposite the petals. Capsule 3-many-seeded, seeds shining 1. Claytonia.
Stems slender. Stamens usually 3, opposite the petals. Capsule 1–3-seeded, seeds dull and opaque 2. Montia.
Alpine herb with densely tufted stems. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals 3. Hectorella.