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31 
PORTULACA Thellusonii. 
Mr. Thelluson’s Purslane. 
i 
ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. PORTULACACEA, 
PORTULACA, Botanical Register, vol. x. fol. 792. 
P. TAellusonii ; annua, caule erecto, axillis filamentosis, foliis alternis sub- 
cylindricis acuminatis obtusis floralibus subverticillatis, floribus ad apices 
ramorum congestis sessilibus, petalis bilebis concavis sepalis subsequa- 
libus pluries longioribus. 
P. grandiflora rutila. Bot. Reg. 1839. misc. no, 114. 
Let not the reader imagine the accompanying figure to 
be an exaggeration, either as to the size of the flowers or 
their colour, for he may be assured on the contrary that art 
is unable to do justice to the brilliant appearance of this most 
beautiful annual, which grows about a foot high, and flowers 
nearly all the summer, if sown in pots filled with a mixture 
of old lime-rubbish and well rotted dung or decayed leaf- 
mould, and fully exposed to the sun. It should be is in a 
sheltered place, for although it will grow tolerably well if 
planted in the open border, the flowers are so delicate that 
in such situations they are much damaged by wind and rain. 
The best place for it is in a south window, or on the south 
side of a greenhouse, or at the foot of a hot south wall in a 
sequestered nook, especially if among a few blocks of lime- 
stone rock. 
It was sent from Florence to the Horticultural Society by 
the Hon. Frederick Thelluson, now Lord Rendlesham, and [ 
had erroneously regarded it as a variety of Portulaca grandi- 
flora, which varies in the colour of its flowers ; suspecting 
indeed that it might have been a hybrid between that plant 
and P. Gilliesii. It however proves so permanent in its 
habits as to render that supposition improbable, and seems to 
have all the signs of a natural species. Its deeply two-lobed 
June, 1840. M 
