Talinum
(said to be the name given to the plant by the negroes of Senegal, who eat it as a salad; but it may have been invented by Adanson). ORD. Portulaceae. A genus comprising about eleven species of stove, greenhouse, or hardy, fleshy, highly glabrous, sometimes suffrutescent herbs, inhabiting tropical and warm regions: two are African and Asiatic, and the rest American. Flowers disposed in terminal panicles, cymes, or racemes, rarely solitary, axillary or lateral; sepals two, deciduous or rarely sub-persistent; petals five, hypogynous, ephemeral; stamens five or numerous. Leaves alternate or nearly opposite, flat; stipules wanting. The best-known species are here described. They are pretty succulents, and will thrive in any light soil, but they prefer sandy peat. Cuttings are a ready means of increase for the shrubby species. T. reflexum may be multiplied by seeds.
T. Arnotii (Arnot's).* fl. pale golden-yellow, lin. in diameter; petals obovate, acute; peduncles axillary, one-flowered, longer than the leaves, spreading, with a small bract above the middle. Summer. l. attenuated, almost sessile, 1 1/2in. long and nearly as broad, orbicular-oblong, rounded at both ends, apiculate at the tip, fleshy, the margins quite entire. Branches 1ft. long, succulent. Trunk or rootstalk cylindric, woody, 5in. to 8in. long. South Africa, 1867. Greenhouse sub-shrub. (B. M. 6220.) T. cuneifolium (wedge-shape-leaved). fl. of a reddish-violet colour, disposed in a terminal panicle; lower peduncles three-flowered. July and August. l. flat, wedge-shaped, obtuse, mucronate. Stem erect, 1 1/2ft. high. India, Arabia, and Africa, 1820. Greenhouse sub-shrub.
T. patens (spreading). Puchero. fl. carmine; petals obovate, 1/4in. long; stamens fifteen to twenty; panicle terminal, elongated, leafless, bearing dichotomous cymes. August to October. l. mostly opposite, oval, abruptly tapering towards the petioli-form base. Stem erect, almost simple, 1ft. to 2ft. high. West Indies, 1776. Stove sub-shrub. (A. B. R. 253.) T. reflexum (reflexed). fl. yellow, in a terminal panicle; peduncles usually opposite, dichotomous, bractless. August to October. l. flat, lanceolate or oval, obtuse, usually opposite. Stem erect, 1ft. high. South America, 1800. Stove biennial. (B. M. 1543.) T. teretifolium (terete-leaved). Fame Flower. fl. pink, 2/3in. broad; stamens fifteen to twenty; peduncle 3in. to 6in. long, naked, bearing an open cyme. June to August. l. linear, cylindrical. Leafy stems low, tuberous at the base. North America, 1823. Greenhouse perennial. See Fig. 5 (B. R. xxix. 1; L. B. C. 819.) T. triangulare (triangular). fl. red or white, arranged in terminal, corymbiferous cymes; petals rounded, 1/2in. long; stamens about thirty. August and September. l. alternate, obovate-lanceolate, tapering towards the sub-sessile base. Stem simple, about 2ft. high. West Indies, 1739. Stove sub-shrub.
T. t. crassifolium (thick-leaved). l. usually broader, often emarginate and mucronate. Stem higher and branched.