Talinum. PORTULACACEJC. 265 



T. f rutescens, Gray, 1. c. 1 5. A foot or so high, woody to the repeatedly dichotomous 

 cymes : flowers sessile in the forks : leaves very flesliy, short-liuear, terete, the pairs approxi- 

 mate, also fascicled in axils ; corolla purple, ephemeral : capsule half inch or more long, 

 twice the length of the calyx. — Mountain valleys, uear El Paso and adjacent New Mexico, 

 Wright. (Adj. Mex., Pringle, to San Luis Potosi, Parry & Palmer, Schaffner.) 



3. TALINUM, Adans. (Etymology obscure.) — Chiefly tropical and 

 American herbs, the only species of temperate regions North American, usually 

 tuberous-rooted. — Fam. ii. 245, excl. spec. ; DC. Prodr. iii. 356; Fenzl, Ann. 

 Wien. Mus. ii. 296 ; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 225, t. 98 ; Benth. & Hook. 1. c.^ 



* Leaves plane, moderately fleshy: flowers in loose cymes forming loug and naked panicles. 



T. patens, Willd. Herbaceous or fleshy-suffrutescent at base from a tuberous root, usu- 

 ally tall and erect or ascending : leaves obovate or spatulate, varying to oblanceolate, some- 

 what petiolate, 2 to 4 inches long : pedicels filiform : sepals early deciduous ; petals either 

 rose-color or yellow, a line or two long : stamens numerous: seeds brown or black. — Spec. 

 ii. 863 ; DC. 1. c. 357 ; Kohrb. in Mart. Fl. Bras. xiv. pt. 2, 296, t. 67. The form with rose- 

 colored corolla is Purtulacu ]ianiculata, J acq. Enum. PI. Carib. 22, Stirp. Amer. 148, & Hort. 

 Vind. ii. t. 151 (not L.), & T. puniculatum, Gairtu. Fruot. ii. 219, t. 128. The yellow-flowered 

 form is T. reflexum, Cav. Ic. i. 1, t. 1 ; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1543 ; DC. 1. c. ; Gray, PI. Wright. 

 ii. 20 ; & T. spathulatum, Engelm. in Gray, PI. Wright, i. 14; the latter passing into Var. 

 sarment6sum, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. 275 (T. sarinentosum, Eugelm. in Gray, PI. 

 Lindh. pt. 2, 153; Gray, PI. Wright, i. 14), which sends off procumbent stems. — Plains of 

 Texas to Arizona.^ (Mex., W. Ind., S. Am.) 



* * Leaves flattish or nearly terete, fleshy, lanceolate to linear : flowers axillary : stamens 

 numerous. 



T. lineare, HBK. A span to a foot or more high, many-stemmed from an oblong or napi- 

 form tuberous root (said to be esculent), ascending, loosely branching, leafy throughout : 

 leaves from lanceolate and 3 inches long by 3 lines wide to narrowly linear and subterete 

 and some only half inch long : peduncle longer than the flower, articulated and 2-bracteo- 

 late below the middle, 1 (occasionally 2-3)-flowered, recurved in fruit: sepals ovate, acu- 

 minate, 3-nerved, tardily deciduous from the capsule : petals from light yellow to orange 

 and flame-color, about half inch loug : seeds conspicuously strophiolate, saliently pluricos- 

 tate. — Nov. Gen. & Spec. vi. 77, the most narrow-leaved form. T. aurantiacum, Engelm. 

 1. c. ; Gray, PI. Wright, i. 14, & ii. 20, with var. angustissimum, which passes into the broader- 

 leaved form. Calanarinia tuherosa, Benth. PI. Hartw. 9, early state. — Rocky ground, W. 

 Texas to Arizona ; fl. summer. (Mex.) 



T. brevifolium, Torr. Depressed, an inch to a span high from a large and deep branch- 

 ing perennial root: leaves crowded, short and thick, quarter to over half inch long, narrow- 

 spatulate or clavate, apparently subterete : flowers solitary iu upper axils, on very short 

 erect pedicels articulated at base: sepals and globose-ovoid capsule barely 2 lines long, about 

 half the length of the pink-red petals : stamens about 20 : style as long as the ovary, 3-cleft 

 at summit: seeds nearly smooth and even, with grayish pellicle. — Torr. in Sitgreaves, Zuni 

 Rep. 156. T. hrachi/podum, Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 355. — New Mexico, on the Little 

 Colorado, Sitgreaves ; near Indian Village of Laguna or Komack,' Lemmon. 



* * * Leaves terete, linear, wholly fleshy : flowers in terminal pedunculate and commonly 

 scapose naked cymes. 



■i- Surpassed by the leaves. 



T. humile, Greene. Acaulescent, a short and slender caudex from a napiform orange- 

 colored tuber, bearing at the ground a dense cluster of terete leaves (2 or 3 inches long and 

 a line or two thick) " lying flat on the ground " : scape bajely inch long, rather shorter than 

 the twice or thrice dichotomous 5-10-flowered cyme: "petals light yellow, changing to 



1 Add Gray, Proc. Atii. Acad. xxii. 275. 



2 Also S. and Centr. Florida, Simpson, Nash, and Louisiana, Goodell, where called "pink star- 

 flowers." 



