PLATE CCI. 



AIZOON CANARIENSE. 



Purjlmte-leaved Aizoon. 



CLASS XIL ORDER IV. 

 ICOSANDRIA PENTAGYNIA. Twenty Chives. Five Poiutals. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Calyx. Perianthiurn monophyllum, quinqiie- 



partitum ; laciniis lanceolatis, perliitentibus. 

 Corolla nulla. 

 Stamina. Filamenta plurlma, capillaria, linui 



cal}'cis per phalanges in ferla. Antherae 



fimplices. 

 PisTiLLA. Germen pentagonum, fuperum. Stili 



quinque, fimplices. Stigmata fimplicia. 

 Pericarpium. Caplula ventrit'ofa, retul'a, pen- 



tagona, quinquelocularis, quinque valvis. 

 Semina plura, fubrotunda. 



Empalement. Cup one leaf, five-parted; feg- 



ments lance-ihaped, remaining. 

 Blossom none. 

 Chives. Threads numerous, hair-like, inferted 



into the hollow part of the cup in bunches. 



Tips fiinple. 

 PoiNTALS. Seed-bud five-fided, above. Shaft.* 



live, firaple. Summits fimple. 

 Seed-vessel. Capfule bellied, denied, rive-fided, 



five celled, five-valved. 

 Sleds many, roundilh. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Aizoon foliis cuneiformi-ovatis; floribus folita- 

 riis, fubfellilibus, axillaribus. 



Aizoon with leaves between wedgeandegg-fliaped; 

 flowers folitary, growing almoft clofe to the 

 ftem from the infertion of the leaves. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. The Empalement (hewn from the infide. 



2. The fame lliewn from the outfide. 

 ,3. A Chive magnified. 



4. The Pointals natural fize. 

 ' 5. The fame, magnified. 



This plant is herbaceous, and is found near the fea coaft, in moft parts of tlie world, within the 

 tropics. It has a charaSer common to many Genera of the natural order of fucculents, fuch as Me- 

 fembryanthemum, Cralfula, &c. that of an indeterminate number of pointals; which, in this genus, 

 extend from three, to five, on different plants ; this circumflance not having been fufticiently attended 

 to has unfortunately occafioned fome confufion. Brown in his Natural Hiltory of Jamaica has delcribed 

 it as growing on that Ifland, and with five pointals, therefore placed it to its right genus. Plumier, 

 Sloane, &:c. treated it as Portulaca, to which, as the genus now fiands, it in no way affines. Lfefling in 

 his Iter Hifpanicum, publiflied in 1/58, having found the plant in Spain with three pointals, immedi- 

 ately placed it to another genus, Halimum ; upon whofe authority, corroborated by Jacquin, (who ac- 

 knowledges a variation in the number of pointals, on different plants, found in the ditf'erent Caribee 

 Iflands,) Linnxus took up the plant, faid to have but three pointals, under the title Sefuvium. As to 

 the plant faid to be cultivated by Miller in the Hort Kew: under the lall named genus, we have no 

 difficulty in referring that, to the Aizoon canarienfe of the fame work; as the time of fiowering not 

 bein^ noticed, the dillinftion of charafter could not be obferved, and the genus introduced, taken upon 

 the gratis dictum of Miller. Burmann, in his Ed: of Rumphius's plants of Amboyna, has it as Ha- 

 limus; and Plukenet as Portulaca fiom Eall Indian fpecimens ; with numbers of other Botanifts from 

 different parts ; as iEgypt, the Canary Iflands, &:c. Hcc. under different names. 



Seeds received from Spain of our plant were fown by Mr. Anderfbn in 1 jga, at the gardens of J. Vere, 

 Efq. Kenfinglon Gore; iiiice v\ Inch time, it has annually died to the ground, about November, and 

 reappeared in Spring; from this circumfiance, the gieat delicacy of the plant, and having been 

 treated as an annual, it has been repeatedly loft to this country; though fbconliantly introduced, in 

 almofl every parcel of feeds which arrives from either the Eall or Well Indies. It may be increafed 

 bv cuttings made early in the year, and put in a hot-bed to accelerate their growth, and fhould be 

 planted in rich loamy earth. It flowers from .Tuly till September. To prcferve it more than one year, 

 it mult be kept in the hol-houfe. 



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