30 
PORTULACA THELLUSONII. 
pointed leaves, annual habit, and more spreading petals, seem to separate it equally 
from P.Gilliesii." 
Treated as a half-hardy annual, the seeds may be sown in the beginning of 
March on a gentle hotbed, protected by common mats, or thick canvas thrown 
over a temporary wooden frame ; or they can be sown in pots, and these plunged 
in fermenting material, in any hotbed frame that happens to be in use. When 
the young plants appear, they should be potted in small pots, and kept for a time 
in a mild heat, or a warm frame or greenhouse, and afterwards transferred to 
an open frame, which is covered at night in cold weather, till they are required for 
transplanting. About the middle of May they are to be transferred to the 
open ground ; but a dry sheltered border or rockery, such as is usually assigned to 
Mesembryanthemums, must be prepared for them, and the soil should not be of a 
wet or retentive nature. They will thus bloom during sunshine (for the flowers 
do not expand except beneath the direct rays of the sun) for a lengthened period ; 
and seldom cease flowering before the arrival of frost. 
The greenhouse and stove culture may be precisely similar to the preceding ; 
only, the seeds can be sown in February, and the plants must be repotted as they 
require it. Light sandy loam, with a little heath-mould, and a free admixture of 
sand, is a proper compost ; and, if potting be attended to, the plants will often, by 
autumn, be nine inches or a foot in diameter, with from twenty to thirty principal 
branches, and a proportionate quantity of flowers. For placing on shelves, the 
dwarfness of this species renders it peculiarly appropriate ; and the richness of its 
blossoms causes its introduction to plant-houses to be very desirable. Seeds should 
be saved from specimens in a cool greenhouse, or, when they are duly ripened, 
from those in the open air, and not from such as are kept in the stove. 
Although strictly an annual species, it may be multiplied by cuttings, which 
will live, and sometimes flower, all the winter in a cool stove. Their blossoms do 
not, however, open perfectly in the winter season, for want of a greater amount of 
solar influence. 
Its native locality is Mendoza, a province of South America, between Buenos 
Ay res and Chili. It has flowered, and been propagated extensively, at the nursery 
of Messrs. Rollisson, Tooting, to whom we owe permission to obtain the present 
figure, which was made in September last. 
The genus is named from porto, to carry or bear, and lac^ milk, in allusion to 
the juicy or succulent character of the species. P. T/iellusonii commemorates the 
gentleman by whom it was introduced. 
