148 XVIII. PORTULACE^ (OLIVER). 



1. PORTULACA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 156. 

 Sepals 2, deciduous. Petals 4-8, perigynous, free or united. Stamens 

 4-8 or more, perigynous or epipetalous. Ovary half-inferior, multiovulate. 

 Style 2-3 -8-ful. Capsule membranous or rather crustaceous, half-inferior, 

 with circumscissile dehiscence. Seeds reniform, compressed or subglobose, 

 granulate or smooth. — Fleshy spreading or erect herbs. Leaves alternate, 

 subopposite or opposite, often whorled around the flowers, with squamifonn 

 or setose stipular appendages, plane or terete. Flowers terminal, sobtary 

 or fascicled, sessile or pedicellate, yellow purple or red, rarely whitish. 



Principally a tropical American genus with one or two species widely spread in both 

 hemispheres in waste and sandy places and a few peculiar to Australia or Africa. Iwo o 

 the new species discovered in Angola by Dr. "Welwitsch are remarkable in this exceptional 

 genus in the extent to which their petals are connate and in their definite stamens and 

 fid style. 

 Petals free or nearly so. Stamens 8 or more. 



Leaves plane, oblanceolate, very obtuse. Stipules minute or obso- 

 lete. Floral sqnarnse ovate 1. P. oleracea. 



Leaves terete. Stipules minute, pilose. Flower-heads with nu- 

 merous sefa; 2. P.foliosa. 



Leaves plane lanceolate or oblong-spathulate, rather acute. Joints 



and flower-heads with numerous long setae 3. P. quadrijida. 



Petals united more or less into a tubular or campanulate corolla. 

 Stamens 4, alternate with the corolla-lobes. Style 2-fid. (Herbs of 

 1-3 inches.) 



Closely leafy, villous at nodes. Flowers in heads 4. P. sarifragoidrs. 



Leaves spreading, oval ; naked at the axils. Flowers iu forking 



cymes 5. P. sedoides. 



1. P. oleracea, Linn. ; DC. Prod. iii. 353. An annual herb with spread- 

 ing or prostrate succulent branches. Leaves fleshy, alternate or subopposite, 

 plane, oblanceolate or obovate-oblong, very obtuse, usually $-l£ in - m l en n tn - 

 Stipules minute or obsolete. Flowers small, yellow, in terminal, sessile, few- 

 flowered, solitary or loosely and cymosely panicled heads, surrounded by a 

 few membranous, ovate, acute squamse. and 2 or more involucral leaves. 

 Petals 5. Styles 5— 6-fid. Seeds granulate. 



Upper Guinea. Fernando Po and Niger, T. Vogel I Barter! . , 



Nile Land. Abyssinia, Petit ; White Nile, Petherick ! Unyoro, Speke and Grant ■ 

 Lower Guinea. Angola, Dr. Welwitsch ! qi| ie 



Generally very common in sandy situations in warm climates all round the globe, 

 well-known salad and pot-herb Purslane. 



2. P. foliosa, Ker; DC. Prod. iii. 353. Decumbent or erect, woody 

 below with more or less succulent leafy shoots and elongate peduncles. 

 Leaves alternate, fleshy, terete, J -1 in. long with setose stipular appendages 

 generally inconspicuous. Flowers yellow, in few-flowered heads or soldai). 

 terminal or overtopped by lateral shoots from immediately below the flowers, 

 surrounded by a tuft of setae and 4 or more involucral leaves. Seeds granu- 

 late— Bot. Reg. t. 793. P. prolifera, Schum. et Thonn. Guin. PL 23« l« 

 drscrS). 



Upper Guinea. Niger, T. Vogel! Barter! Accra, Bon. 

 Lower Guinea. Pungo Andongo and Loanda, Br. Weltcitsch ! 

 Mozamb. Distr. Zambesi, Br. Kirk! 



