54 XVII. PORTULACE^. [^Portulaca 



stem) ; flowers sessile, rose-red, fugacious ; calyx tubular, bifid to the 

 middle, whitish-rose, deciduous with the corolla ; corolla tubular, deep 

 rose-red, 4-cleft, fleshy-membranous, very tender, dissolving, with 

 obovate equal lobes patent at the time of flowering ; stamens 4, alter- 

 nating with the corolla-lobes, inserted a little below their base, sub- 

 exserted ; anthers oblong, with 2 linear cells ; ovary 1-celled ; ovules 

 numerous ; style filiform, sub-exserted, with 2 hairy diverging lobes 

 stigmatose on the inner face ; capsule bright red, membranous, sub- 

 depresso-globose, circumscissile, 1-celled ; seeds 3 to 7, fuscous-black 

 when ripe, cochleate ; placentation basal. Abundant, on the gneiss 

 rocks and fragments of rocks thrown down on the flat land about 

 Caghuy, among short mossy herbage on the east of the fortress : 

 fl. and fr. 15 Feb. 1857. No. 1107. An annual herb, 1 to 2 in. high, 

 fleshy, blood-red throughout. At the rocks of Pungo Andongo ; fr. 

 April 1857. Coll. Cakp. 239. 



This is the plant referred to by Welwitsch, Apont. p. 557, under 

 n, 132, as a new genus, with the habit of Sedum rubens L., which grows 

 in such dense masses on the rocks of Pungo Andongo as to make them 

 at a distance glow with a purple colour. 



2. TALINUM Adans.; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 157. 



1. T. cuneifolium Willd. Sp. PI. ii. p. 864 (1799); Oliv. Fl. 

 Trop. Afr. i. p. 150. 



LoANDA.^ — A perennial undershrub, stems many, erect or tortuously 

 twisted, many-angled at the base, the younger ones acutely or rather 

 alately triquetrous, virgate ; leaves obovate-spathulate, green-shining ; 

 flowers handsome, rose-purple. Frequent in bushy stony places at the 

 base of rocks, etc., throughout the district, Samba Grande, Cabo-Lombo^ 

 etc. ; fl. and fr. July 1854. Also a succulent perennial suffruticose 

 herb, \^ to 2 ft. high ; leaves fleshy, bright green, mucronate ; flowers 

 racemose, rose-coloured, rather large for the genus, nearly open in the 

 sun ; peduncles and pedicels bracteate. In dry little-elevated hilly 

 places, near the sea-shore, between the city of Loanda and the mouths 

 of the river Cuanza, near Tanza; fl. and fr. end of Feb. 1858. No. 1098. 

 Coll. Carp. 240. 



2. T. caffrum Eckl. & Zeyh. ex Dr^ge, Zwei Pflanz. 225 (1843); 

 Oliv., I.e., p. 150. 



Loanda. — A fleshy, brittle, apparently perennial herb ; rootstock 

 thick, producing numerous stems branched from the base ; branches 

 quite patent, gradually shorter, as well as the stems turning purple ; 

 leaves thick, glaucous-green, entire ; flowers large for the genus, yellow, 

 expanded in full daylight ; not uncommon in muddy-sandy and rocky 

 maritime situations, near Penedo and Praia da Zamba Grande ; fl. and 

 fr. March 1854. Also a fleshy undershrub, twisted or with ascending 

 cylindrical branches ; leaves thick, elliptical, mucronate, delicately 

 wrinkled on both surfaces, glaucescent ; flowers yellow, rather large, 

 fugacious ; peduncles all axillary, solitary, gradually thickened from 

 the middle upwards, bibracteolate at the middle, at length after fer- 

 tilisation of the flower arching-reflexed. In dry situations, near 

 IMaianga da Povo ; fl. and fr. beginning of May 1858. No. 1097. A 

 perennial herb, persisting at least for several years ; root thick, ranging 

 up to 1 in. in diam., at first vertical, at length closely surrounded with 

 quite patent fibres. In rugged situations and in sandy fields at Alto 

 das Cruzes ; fl. and fr. middle of Dec. 1858, A form with narrow leaves. 

 No. 1097 /a Alto das Cruzes, fl. and fr. July 1858. No. 1097'-. 



