31 



PORTULACA Tl.ellusom'i. 



Mr. Thelluson s Purslane. 



ICOSAIVDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

 Nat. ord. PoRTULACACE.*:. 

 PORTULACA. Botanical Register, vol. x.fol. 792. 



P. Thellusonii ; annua, caule erecto, axillis filamentosis, foliis alternis sub- 

 cylindricis acuminatis obtusis floralibus subverticillatis, floribus ad apices 

 ramorum congestis sessilibus, petalis bilobis concavis sepalis subeequa- 

 libus pluries longioribus. 



P. grandiflora rutila. Bat. 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 kept 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 I 

 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 



