Mesembryanthemum.] LXVI1. FICOIDER (OLIVER). 583 
cylindrical stem. Leaves conico-cylindrical, turgid, obtuse (digitiform), 
smooth, reddish-brown, varying to 2in.in length. Flowers white, 
solitary, nearly concealed between a pair of turgid ovoid concave obtuse 
erect bracts. 
ower Guinea. Mossamedes, Dr. Welwitsch! Described chiefly from Dr. Wel- 
witsch’s notes. 
2, TETRAGONIA, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. i. 854. 
Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary ; lobes 3-5. Petals 0. Stamens oo 
(1-2 } inserted in the calyx-tube. Ovary nearly wholly inferior, 2-8- 
celled; styles thick, densely papillose; ovules solitary, pendulous. 
Tuit a nut or drupaceous (horned or) winged, indehiscent.—Herbs or 
low shrubs with alternate entire succulent exstipulate leaves. Flowers 
axillary, solitary or few together, sessile or pedunculate, greenish- 
yellow (or reddish). 
Most of the species are peculiar to the Cape Flora. One (7. expansa, Murr.) of the 
Southern hemisphere and Japan is cultivated as spinach. 
l. T. reduplicata, Welw. mss. Shrubby, erect with ascending 
early glabrous branches, 1-24 ft. high. Leaves alternate, succulent, 
ovate, strongly reduplicate along the midrib, the apex when thus folded 
more or less incurved or falcate, obtuse, glabrous or papillose, deep 
am when fresh ; 4-1} in. long, varying to nearly 1 in. broad when 
orcibly flattened, rather abruptly narrowed into a petiole of 4-4 in. 
Owers greenish in short axillary fascicles or few-flowered racemules 
shorter than the leaf, about 4 in. broad. Calyx-lobes 4 (or 2), unequal, 
obtuse, spreading, papillose. Stamens 12-20. Styles 3 or 2, slightly 
exceeding the calyx. Fruit 4-3-winged, obovate or roundish in put 
line, 3—# in. long and broad, dull, nerveless between the wings, 2—1- 
celled by abortion (Dr. Welwitsch). 
Lower Guinea. Mossamedes, Angola, Dr. Welwitsch! 
Allied to 7. arbuscula, F. of the Cape. ; 
3. AIZOON, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. i. 854. 
Calyx-tube short, limb 5—4-partite, segments imbricate (or valvate). 
etals 0. Stamens indefinite; about 12-60, sometimes inserted in oli- 
BU eemonous phalanges alternating with the calyx-lobes. eae _— 
epressed, 5—4-celled; styles free; ovules 2—co (6-10) in each — 
= apenle depressed, dehiscing loculicidally, the valves remaining : xe 
and incurved at the apex or free.—Herbs or suffrutescent, usually pa- 
Pillose-tomentose, the hairs often medio-fixed. Leaves alternate, ex- 
Stipulate. Flowers axillary, solitary or in distichous spikes or con- 
tracted cymes, 
A small genus of countries towards the Mediterranean, the Cape, and Australia. 
Diffuse or prostrate, dichotomous. Flowers sessile, solitary in the 
orks or axils, or glomerate from contraction of internodes. 
a3 ; . A jenae. 
alves of fruit inflexed, united to axis . . - + + + 1, A. canarie 
