Tas. 6220. 
TALINUM Aprwottt. 
Native of South Africa. 
Nat. Ord. PORTULACEX. 
Genus TaLinum, Adans, (Benth. et Hook. f., Gen. Plant., vol. 1., p. 167). 
'TALINUM Arnotii; caudice robusto ligneo, ramis annotinis pedalibus, foliis 
brevissime petiolatis late oblongo-orbiculatis apiculatis basi et apice rotun- 
datis, floribus axillaribus, pedunculis foliis 2-3-plo longioribus, floribus fere 
1 poll diametro. 
This is one of a collection of plants of a very remarkable 
habit, which was sent to Kew in 1867 by the Hon. David 
Arnot, then Commissioner for the Griqua States, and residing 
at Eskdale, Albania. For the most part they presented more 
or less cylindrical or spindle-shaped woody stocks, of almost 
stony hardness, which serve as reservoirs of moisture and 
nourishing matter during the scorching droughts of the dry, 
stony district they inhabit. Of these some remained for 
several years in the stove before they showed any signs of 
life, and when they did so they proved to belong to very 
different natural Orders. Some were Asclepiadee of the 
genus Ceropegia and its allies, others Cucurbitacee, others 
Convolvulacee, and still others Geraniaceer, Leguminose, and 
Portulacece, to which latter belongs the subject of the present 
plate, which, though imported as above stated in 1867, did 
not flower till six years afterwards. : 
The genus Zulinum is represented in South Africa by a 
widely diffused species, the old 7. caffrum (to which the 
present is perhaps, too, nearly allied), which differs in the 
narrow Jeaves contracted at both ends, and, judging from 
dried specimens, the much smaller flowers. The only other 
Old World species is 7. cuneifoliwm, Willd, a native of 
Tropical Africa and Arabia, which extends eastwards into 
Western India. It has leaves more like those of 7. Arnotn 
than are those of 7. caffrum, but they are cuneate at the 
base, and the flowers are racemose. ; 
Drscr. Trunk or root-stock five to eight inches long, 
Mancu Ist, 1876. 
