purslane (perslan)

[Also purslain; early mod. E. pours lane, purse line; Pours lane do the mitigate the great heat in al the inward partes of the bod ye, semblably of the head and eyes. Sir T. Elyot , Castle of Health, ii. 15. Black purslane, a kind of spurge, Euphorbia Preslii ( Ε. hyp eric i folia ), a common weed of the United States, somewhat resembling purslane in habit, but not fleshy. - Milk purslane, the spotted spurge, Euphorbia maculata, a prostrate weed having a milky juice. - Mud-purslane, a water wort, Elatine American a. - Sea-purslane. (a) In Great Britain, A triplex portulacoides, the purslane orach, a low straggling sea-shore shrub. (b) In America, Sesuvium Portulaca strum, of the warmer Atlantic shores and the saline or alkaline valleys of the southwestern United States, a prostrate fleshy plant, forming mats sometimes 6 feet north to New Jersey.-Water-purslane. (a) Peplis Porbroad; also, S. pent and rum, sometimes erect, reaching tula. ( b ) Ludwigia palustris. (c) An American aquatic or sometimes terrestrial herb, Didiplis linear is, of the Lythra rieæ, with opposite linear leaves and very small greenish flowers.-Wild purslane, a European species, Euphorbia Peplis, with prostrate leafle flowering branches which fork repeatedly, forming mats on maritime sands.