PORTULACACEyE. 225 



Plate 98. 

 TALINUM, Adans. 



Calyx 2-sepalus, liber, deciduus. Petala 5, hypogyna, 

 ephemera. Stamina 10-30, hypogyna. Stylus apice trilo- 

 bus. Capsula unilocularis, 3-valvis, polysperma. — Flores 

 saspius cymosi. 



Talinum, Adans. Fara. 2. p. 145. excl. spec. Gaertn. Fr. t. 219. Sims. 



Bot. Mag. t. 1357. Haworth, Syn. Succ. p. 123. DC. Prodr. 3. 



p. 356. Fenzl, in Ann. Wein. Mus. 2. p. 296. Torr. & Gray, 



Fl. N. Am. 1. p. 196. Endl. Gen. 5178. 

 Phemeranthds, Raf. Speech. 1. p. 86. 



Calyx herbaceous, of two ovate sepals, imbricated in aes- 

 tivation, deciduous. Petals 5, hypogynous, quincuncially 

 imbricated in aestivation, expanding in sunshine for a single 

 day, deciduous soon after. Stamens 10 to 30, hypogynous, 

 or slightly adnate to the base of the petals : filaments fili- 

 form : anthers introrse, fixed by the middle ; the cells 

 opening longitudinally. Ovary globular, slightly three- 

 grooved, one-celled, or three-celled below, the thin dissepi- 

 ments soon disappearing : style columnar or filiform, three- 

 lobed, the whole inner surface of the lobes stigmatose. 

 Ovules indefinite, on slender funiculi, inserted all over the 

 central and usually stipitate placenta, amphitropous or cam- 

 pylotropous. 



Capsule chartaceous, smooth, globular, one-celled, loculi- 

 cidally three-valved (the valves in T. teretifolium usually 

 separating or separable from a capillary replum), many- 

 seeded. Seeds covering the free central placenta, lenticular 

 or reniform, strophiolate at the hilum ; the crustaceous testa 

 smooth and shining. Embryo incompletely annular around 

 the outside of the farinaceous albumen. 



Herbs or suffruticose fleshy plants, very smooth, with 

 alternate or somewhat opposite entire leaves, and cymose 

 fugacious flowers, expanding in the morning sunshine. 



