MESEMBRYANTHEMUM TRICOLOR. 
(Thiee-coloured flowered Mesembryanthemum.) 
Class. 
ICOSANDRIA. 
Order. 
DI-PENTAGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
FICOIDE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx of five, rarely of two to 
eight sepals ; sepals united to themselves and to the 
ovarium even to the middle; lobes vmequal, usually 
leaf-formed. Petals innumerable, in one, but oftener 
in many series, united among themselves at the base. 
Stamens indefinite, disposed in many series, inserted 
w^ith the petals at the top of the calyx. Ovary adnate 
to the calyx, many-celled inside, (four to twenty,) but 
usually five-celled. Stigmas four to twenty, but usually 
five. Capsule many-celled, opening stellately at the 
apex, adnate to the permanent calyx. Seeds numerous. 
jBrnftr^/o curved at the side of a mealy albumen. Coty- 
ledons thick, very blunt.— Z>on'* Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character Plant annual. Stems nearly 
prostrate. Leaves long, strap-shaped, acute, green. 
Flowers mostly radical, solitary. Peduncles long, 
covered with little warty protuberances. Calyx of five 
leafy segments. Corolla deep pink; petals curving 
backwards. Capsule nearly round, depressed in the 
centre. 
Except the showy species of Porfulaca, there are not many dwarf tender annuals 
adapted for growing in pots, to place on low and prominent stages in the green- 
house during summer. And where the system of cultivating the better kinds of 
greenhouse plants in retired houses or frames while they are not in bloom is 
practised, and a show-house is kept for the constant exhibition of flowering 
specimens, it will be found necessary to grow several sorts of annuals, for keeping 
up a display throughout most of the summer and autumnal months. 
As a very dwarf and interesting object, well fitted for placing on front shelves 
near the eye, the plant before us will be exceedingly serviceable, and will cause a 
pleasing variation among the sorts of Portulaca suited for the same purpose. The 
fact that it was introduced to our gardens as early as the year 1795 will not prove 
a drawback to its employment ; for if it were to be cultivated for its novelty, the 
lengthened period through which it has been disregarded gives it almost a claim to 
be regarded as novel, while its more decided merits, and those which have prompted 
us to figure it, render it a worthy object of the culturist^s notice. 
We met with it accidentally at Messrs. Henderson's, Pine-apple Place, where 
it was blooming, in the late summer, both in pots and in the open border. We 
have subsequently observed it at Messrs. RoUisson's, Tooting, and it is doubtless to 
be obtained of any nurseryman or seedsman. 
It should be treated like other tender annuals, by being sown thinly in a pot. 
