PURSLANES 
is about 6 inches in height, and flowers in early summer. C. Bieber- 
steinii, from Asia Minor (1820), is similar to the last, but its leaves are less 
silvery. C. grandijlorum is of similar stature, with larger flowers in con¬ 
spicuous clusters; but it is not evergreen. It is strong-growing and 
requires plenty of room. They are all of easy culture, being suited by 
ordinary garden soil, and readily propagated by division of the roots, 
or by cuttings taken in late summer, after the flowering period. It 
will be found that where the stems of the growing plant come in 
contact with the soil they readily root, and these may be advantageously 
used as rooted cuttings. They also come readily from seed. 
PURSLANES 
Natural Order Porttjlacke. Genus Pmi,ulaca 
Portulaca (a modification of Pliny’s name— Porcilaca —for these plants). 
A genus comprising about sixteen species of widely distributed fleshy 
herbs with alternate, or irregularly opposite leaves, often with tufts of 
bristles in their axils. The upper leaves form a kind of involucre to 
the ephemeral flowers, which are purple, rosy, or yellow. They only 
open in direct morning sunshine, and then close finally. There are two 
sepals, four or five petals, and many stamens. Ovary of three united 
carpels with several stigmas. The species are chiefly natives of South 
America and South Africa, inhabiting dry, parched places. P. oleracea 
is naturalised in most of the warm parts of the world. 
The history of Portulaca as a garden plant begins 
with P. oleracea, which was cultivated as a pot-herb in 
very ancient days, and consequently got well distributed over the tropics 
and the temperate regions. We introduced it from Southern Europe in 
1582 as a culinary plant, but it appears to be little used now in this 
country, though the young shoots may occasionally be encountered in 
the salad bowl. In Holland it is still cultivated extensively for this 
purpose, and for pickling. Several species and varieties have been 
introduced at different periods, but those now cultivated for the sake of 
their brilliant flowers have come to us within the present century. Of 
these, P. foliosa came from Guinea in 1822; P. OiUieaii from Mendoza in 
1827, and in the same year the subject of our illustration (Plate 43) 
from Brazil. This species, P. grandifiora, is the one now chiefly grown, 
and it has produced several good varieties in cultivation, all having the 
brilliant characters of the type. 
