CALANDRINIA UMBELLATA. 
(Umbel-flowering Calandrine.) 
Class. 
Order. 
DODECANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
PORTULACACE^. 
Generic Character.-— permanent, bi-partite; 
sepals roundish-ovate. Petals three to five, hypogy- 
nous, or inserted in the bottom of the calyx, distinct 
or connected together at the very base, equal. Stamens 
four to fifteen, inserted in the torus or base of the 
petals, distinct, generally alternating with the petals. 
Style one, very short, tri-partite at the apex ; lobes 
collected into a clavately-capitate stigma. Capsule 
oblong-elliptic, one-celled, three- valved, many-seeded. 
Seeds adhering by capillary funicles to the central 
placenta. 
SPEcrFic Character. — Plant suffruticose. Stems 
procumbent, determinate. Leaves crowded, linear, 
acutish, pilose. Flower-stems terminal, wiry, tumid 
at the base, purplish, bearing a few distant small 
leaves. Corymb cymose, terminal, many-flowered. 
Bracteas ciliated. Sepals nearly orbicular, permanent. 
Stamens ten to fifteen. Ovarium prismatically conical, 
tapering a long way. 
SvNONYMEs — prostrata, Talinum umbel- 
latum. 
The enterprising zeal in the cause of botany and floriculture displayed by the 
Messrs. Veitch and Son, of Exeter, has now become pretty generally known, 
through the numerous magnificent plants which have been introduced to this 
country by their means, and deserves the thanks of every lover of cultivated 
flowers. The elegant little plant portrayed in the annexed plate, is another 
instance of their success ; and though by no means likely to acquire the popularity 
which some of the importations of those gentlemen have attained, it is, never- 
theless, one which every one who sees it with its blooms expanded must 
pronounce beautiful. 
It is a small sub-shrub, of a prostrate habit, with little crowded linear leaves. 
The flower-stems, which are very wiry, spring from the termination of the 
preceding summer’s shoots, and rise about six inches, in their progress forming a 
bottle-shaped swelling at the foot, from immediately beneath which five or six 
fresh shoots push, to flower in their turn the succeeding season. Thus the plant 
goes on extending year by year, still retaining its procumbent habit, and multiply- 
ing the number of flowering branches. The flowers are disclosed in clusters at 
the top of the almost leafless flower-stem, and though they are not so large as 
those of some of its allies, they ensure esteem for their numbers and rich purple 
colouring. They are by no means fugacious, but unfortunately, like other 
Calandrinias, they never expand except whilst the sun shines brightly upon 
