Portulacece Portulaca. 75 



double and single varieties. It includes Thellussoni., with 

 scarlet flowers having a white centre; and splendens, with 

 crimson or purple flowers. A native of South America, and 

 rather tender. 



2, CALANDRlNIA. 



Glabrous annual or perennial herbs, shrubby at the base. 

 Leaves alternate or fasciculate, fleshy. Flowers in racemes or 

 umbels, rarely solitary. Sepals 2, free. Petals 5, rarely fewer 

 or many, hypogynous as are the numerous stamens. Capsule 

 3-valved. About sixty species are reported, natives of America 

 and Australia. Named in honour of a German botanist. The 

 three species noticed here are all from Chili, and perennial, 

 though usually treated as tender annuals. They are very showy 

 little plants, but open their flowers only when the sun shines 

 upon them. 



1. (7. discolor. About a foot high with large flowers in 

 racemes. The . petals are broad, rosy purple, contrasting well 

 with the numerous orange-coloured stamens. 



2. G. grandiflora. Similar to the last, but, contrary to the 

 signification of the name, with smaller flowers of a darker 

 purple. 



3. G. umbellata. A dwarfer species, smaller in all its parts, 

 with the crimson or purple flowers collected in the form of an 

 umbel. 



ORDER XIX. TAMARISCINE^E. 



Shrubs or small trees with very minute often scale-like im- 

 bricate leaves, and small flowers in dense spikes. Sepals 5, 

 rarely 4, imbricate in bud. Petals of the same number or more, 

 free or slightly connate at the base, imbricate in bud. Stamens 

 4 to 10, free or connate below, inserted in the disk ; anthers 

 versatile. Disk hypogynous or slightly perigynous, furnished 

 with 10 glands. Capsule 3-5-valved. Seeds erect, plumose 

 or winged ; albumen none. Tdmarix yields manna and galls. 

 A small order ; from the temperate and warm regions. 



1. TAMARIX. 



The characters as above. About twenty species are known. 

 The name is from Tamaris, a river in Spain, where this 

 genus abounds. These shrubs are invaluable for planting by 

 the sea-side, where scarcely anything else will grow. 



