6 
PORTULACA 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate p (a) Whole plants. ( b ) Seeds (enlarged). Devonshire (G. C. D.). (e) Fertile 
shoot, (d) Flower (enlarged). ( e ) Seed (enlarged). Derbyshire (C. E. M.). (/, g) Whole plants of the 
terrestrial form, {h) Leaf (enlarged), (i) Seeds (enlarged). Cornwall. 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 131, as M. minor ; Dorfler, 4723, as M. minor ; van Heurck, i, 20, as M. minor-, Todaro, 
656 (partim), as M. minor ; Welwitsch {FI. Lusit.), 1050, as M. fontana-, Fiori, Beguinot, et Pampanini {FI. Ital. 
Exsicc.), 788, as M. minor. 
Differs from var. lamprosperma by its seeds being not merely reticulate but covered with 
coarse and often prominent tubercles ; seeds also usually dull and black. 
Seeds have been found by Mr Clement Reid in Roman Silchester, and in the interglacial beds at Redhall, near Edinburgh. 
(y 3 ) var. chondrosperma forma major Druce in Moss Camb. Brit. FI. iii, 6 (1913); M. fontana var. 
major Schrader FI. Germ. 415 (1806); S. F. Gray Nat. Arr. ii, 544 (1821); Koch Syn. 253 (1837); Wallroth 
in Linnaea xiv, 546 (1840); M. rivnlaris Gmelin FI. Baden, i, 302 (1805) partim; Hallier und Wohlfarth 
in Koch Syn. 896 (1892); M. fontana var. rivularis Boenninghausen Prodr. FI. Monast. 12 (1824); Syme 
Eng. Bot. ii, 136 (1864); partim; M. minor subsp. rivularis Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, 316 (1896). 
Exsiccata: — Todaro, 65 6 (partim), as M. minor ; Fiori, Beguinot, et Pampanini {FI. Ital.), 789, as M. 
rivularis. 
This, the water-form of var. chondrosperma resembles var. lamprosperma in its vegetative 
characters ; but it has the tubercled seeds of var. chondrosperma, albeit these are sometimes less 
dark in colour and not uncommonly somewhat larger in size. 
M. fontana var. chondrosperma occurs in similar situations as var. lamprosperma ; throughout England and 
Wales (not yet recorded for Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire); Scotland — Edinburghshire, Fifeshire, Forfarshire, 
Perthshire ; Ireland ; usually lowland, but it ascends to 390 m. on Dartmoor, in Devonshire. 
Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, central and southern Europe. 
M. fontana occurs in wet or damp places, or near springs, on the margins of rills and 
rivulets, on the edges of pools, on wet rock-ledges, on peaty ground sometimes inundated, on 
moors and heaths, in damp woods, on sandy or shingly paths and road-sides, and as a weed 
of cultivated land ; shunning calcareous rocks, basic clays, and fen peat ; from sea-level up to 
about 1036 m. (as var. lamprosperma ) in Aberdeenshire ; the water-forms prefer well-aerated water. 
Foreign distribution, as for the genus (see page 3). 
Genus 3. ^Portulaca 
Portulaca [Tournefort Inst. 236, t. 118 (1700);] L. Sp. PI. 445 (1753) et Gen. PI. ed. 5, 204 (1754); 
Haworth Syn. Plant. Succul. 121 (1812); Pax in Engler und Prantl PJlanzenfam. iii, pt. 1 b, 59 (1889); Rouy 
et Foucaud FI. France iii, 315 (1896). 
Herbs. Shoot diffuse or ascending, more or less succulent. Leaves alternate or nearly opposite, 
with scarious, sometimes minute stipules. Sepals 2, united at the base, the upper free parts 
caducous. Petals 4 — 6, free or slightly united below, inserted at the top of the calyx-tube (or 
receptacle). Stamens 4 — co perigynous, free or adherent to the base of petals. Ovary subinferior. 
Stigmas 3 — 8. Fruit many-seeded, dehiscing transversely. Seeds 00 , compressed. Embryo peripheral. 
About 38 species ; tropical and warm temperate zones. Only British species : — f/ 5 . oleracea. 
I. tPORTULACA OLERACEA. Plate 5 
Portulaca oleracea L. Sp. PI. 445 (1753)!; Haworth Misc. Nat. 136 (1803); Rouy et Foucaud FI. 
France iii, 315 (1896). 
leones : — Sibthorp et Smith FI. Graec. t. 457. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 5. Portion of flowering shoot. Jersey (E. W. H.). 
Exsiccata : — Billot, 3859 ; Watson {PI. Azor.), 89 ; Wirtgen {Herb. Flor. Rhen.) 1025. 
Annual. Shoot succulent, often reddish, glabrous, 1 — 3 dm., prostrate, much branched. Petioles 
short or absent. Laminae opposite at least below, entire, crowded at the ends of the branches. 
Inflorescence solitary or few-flowered. Flowers sessile, about 5 mm. in diameter, opening only on 
warm mornings; June to September. Bracts rather unequal in size. Corolla yellow. Stamens 
sensitive. Fruit ovoid-trigonous. Seeds black, shining, finely tubercled. 
A weed of cultivated land ; locally abundant in the Channel Isles, and near London, as at Kew and 
Richmond. 
France (including Brittany), and central and southern Europe ; warm-temperate and hot regions throughout 
the world. 
