-h V 



M ■ * 



y 



t J 



62 



MR. >:. E. BROWN : NEW AND OLD 



♦Plant very dwarf, tufted or occasionally solitary, atemless or 

 rarely developing forlied steins that in nature become buried 

 in the grouud. Each growth (really a branch or offset) an 

 apparently solid entire or 2-lobed fleshy body, 

 t Adult flowering: growths with a small oritice like a closed 



o o 



mouth at the centre of the top or in the base of the notch 

 between the lobes. Petals united at their lower part into 



a tube. 



(Jrowths obconic, obcordatCj obovate, globose or rarely 

 eoniewhat clavate, usually entire, with tlie top convex, 

 flat or depressed, or, if somewhat 2-Iobed then with 

 the lobes rounded and not as if pinched into a ridj^e at 

 the top nor flat on their inner face at the notch SiuiiEKOioKA* 



Growths ;i?^ually oblon^^, sometimes obovoid or subglobose, 

 notched or distinctly S-lobed at the top, which is often 

 as if pinched between the thumb and finger into a ridge 

 or keel, with the inner lobes of the face flat at the 

 notch BiLOUA. 



Growths divided part of the way down into two cylindric 



or turret-like lobes , . , . TuimixA. 



|t Adult flowering growths or plant obconic or cylindric, with 



a transveri^e fissure all across the top dividing it into two 

 very short convex or flat lobes. Juvenile pUnts have only 

 a small central oritice. Petals widely spreading and free 



from the base, not forming a tube Fissl'Hata. 



** Plant with distinct erect stenia branching above ground or 



very dwarf and tufted. Each branch or branchlet producing 

 annually one pair of leaves that are free to their base and 

 spread widely or recurve, and a second pair that are nuited 

 for the greater or lesser part of their length into a globose, 

 cylindricj or conit-al body which persists, whilst its free- 

 spreading or erect tooth-like tips and the free leaves shrivel 

 and sometimes fall away. 



Shrublets or with clustered steins 5-30 cm. high, branching; 



young leaves papillate, not conspicuously gland-dotted . . MoNILifokmia. 

 Very dwarf tufted plants 2-3 cm. high ; young leaves smooth, 



not papillate, conspicuously pellucid-dotted when held 



against the light , MahciDA. 



- The genus Mesemhrmnfliemum^ like Kupkorbia^ whilst remarkably uniform 

 in the appearance and structure of the flowers of its various speclesj contains 

 a large number of perfectly distinct vegetative types^ around each of which 

 several allied species can be p^rouped ; and these groups have by autliors 

 been formed into characterised sections, wdiichj however, more or less 

 graduate into, one another, so that they cannot always be rigidly defined by 

 words. Therefore, althousfh averse to the formation of sections where all are 

 bound together by the threads of evolution Into one coherent whole, T have 

 arranged the species here dealt with under the sections already characterised^ 

 and have made new sections for the tew species that cannot well be placed in 

 any existing section* 



