Purslane
ORD. Portulaceae. A genus comprising about sixteen species of stove, greenhouse, or hardy, annual or perennial, fleshy, diffuse or ascendent herbs, distributed over the whole world. Flowers purple, yellow, or pink; sepals two; petals four to six. Leaves alternate or irregularly opposite, flat or nearly cylindrical, often with tufts of bristles in their axils, and the upper ones forming an involucre around the flowers. The perennial species should be grown in a light position in a greenhouse, and potted in a mixture of loam, leaf mould, and coarse sand. The annual kinds may be raised from seeds, sown in boxes, and afterwards planted in a sunny border out of doors. All the species mentioned below, except the last, which is quite hardy, are best treated as half-hardy annuals.
P. foliosa (leafy). fl. yellow, about three; calyx hairy; petals retuse; involucre many-leaved. June. l. subulate. h. 6in. Guinea, 1822. (B. R. 793.) P. Gilliesii (Gillies'). fl. red, purple, terminal, usually solitary. June and July. l. oblong, cylindrical, rather compressed, obtuse, dotted with axillary fascicles of hairs, erect, adpressed. Stems rather erect, branched at base. h. 6in. Mendoza, 1827. (B. M. 3064.) P. grandiflora (large-flowered).* Sun-plant. fl. yellow, purple, three or four together, terminal, crowded, surrounded by whorls of leaves and crowded hairs. June and July. l. scattered, cylindrical, acute, with pilose axils. h. 6in. Brazil, 1827.(B. M. 2885.) P. g. Thellusonii (Thelluson's). fl. scarlet, large, terminal, sessile; petals two-lobed. Summer. l. sub-cylindrical, obtuse; floral ones sub-verticillate. Stem erect, thready in the axils. h. 1ft. 1839. SYN. P. Thellusonii (B. R. 1840, 31).
P. oleracea (culinary). Common Purslane. fl. yellow, solitary or clustered, stalkless above the last leaves on the branches. June and July. l. small, oblong, wedge-shaped, destitute of bristles in their axils. h. 6in. South Europe, 1582. The young shoots of this plant are sometimes put in salads, and the older ones used as a potherb, or for pickling. The species is generally cultivated in Holland, &c., for these purposes.
P. Thellusonii (Thelluson's). A synonym of P. grandiflora Thellusonii.