386 MESEMBRYACE® (Sonp.) 
Stigmas 3, patulous, muricato-glandular above. rwit 3-quetrous, 
3-winged, indehiscent, 1-seeded. DO.l. c. 360. Endl. Gen. n. 3175. 
Glabrous, fleshy shrubs or small trees, natives of South Africa. Leaves opposite, 
roundish, flat, deciduous. Peduncles opposite, denticulate, compressed ; pedicels 
1-flowered, 3 rising from each notch in the peduncle, Flowers very small, rose- 
coloured, Name altered from Portulaca. 
ANALYSIS OF THE SPECIES, 
Branches opposite ; peduncles compressed, branched, ... (1) afra. é 
Branches dichotomous ; peduncles angular, unbranched, ... (2) namaquensis. 
1. P. afra (Jacq. Coll. 1, 160. t. 22); branches opposite, smooth ; 
leaves rising from the opposite nodes, obovate-roundish, flat ; peduncles 
compressed, branched, branches opposite ; pedicels ternate. DC. Pl. 
Grass. t. 132. E.& Z.! 1804. Claytonia Portulacaria, Linn. Mant. 221. 
Lam. il, t. 144. f. 2. Crassula Portulacastrum, Linn. spec. 406. Portulaca 
Sruticosa, Thunb.! Fl. Cap. 399. excl. syn, Dill. Hlth, 1. t. 101, f. 120. 
Has. In Karroo, in the districts of Uitenhage, Graafreynet and Albany. Nov.- 
Dec. (Herb. Thunb. Jacq. Sd. D. ete.) 
Speckboom of the Colonists. Small tree, 10-12 feet high. Branches articulate. 
Leaves 4-6 lineslong. Flowers on short, delicate (2-3 lines) pedicels, at the base 
bracteated by very minute scales. Petals about 1 line long. 
2. P. namaquensis (Sond.) ; branches dichotomous, all over beset with 
scattered leaf and flower-bearing nodes ; leaves minute, very fleshy, 
obovate, geminate, sessile on the nodes, deciduous ; peduncles inserted 
between the leaves, angular, not branched ; pedicels solitary, geminate 
or ternate. 
Has. Namaqualand, Dr. Atherstone, A. Wyley, Esq., Dec. (Herb. Hook, D.) 
4-5 feet high. Branches greyish-green, the ultimate as thick as a goose-quill. 
Leaves 2 lines long. Peduncles 6-8 lines long. Pedicels involucrated by some 
_ minute ovate bracts, about 2 lines long. Calyx 2-phyllous, three times shorter than 
the 5 rose-coloured, obovate, near 1 line long petals. Stamens 5 ; filaments linear. 
Anthers oblong, emarginate at both ends. Ovary ovate. Style short. 
OrpER LV. MESEMBRYACEA, Lindl. 
Sorc (By W. SonveER.) 
secular. Calyx gamosepalous, 4-5 cleft, its tube 
or free. Petals indefinite (in Mesembryanthemum) 
} deliquescent. Stamens perigynous, definite or 
indefinite; filaments slender ; anthers 2-celled, introrse. Ovary infe- 
rior or superior, 2—5—20-celled ; ovules numerous or few or solitary, on 
long cords, attached to the base or inner angle of the cell, amphitropal. 
Styles or stigmas as many as the carpels. Fruit capsular, variously 
dehiscent; rarely nucamentaceous and indehiscent. Seeds lenticular or 
reniform, with floury albumen. mbryo excentric, curved round the 
margin of the seed, the radicle next the hilum. 
Small shrubs, undershrubs or herbs, with ite or alternate exstipulate, undi- 
vided, usually fleshy or thickened leaves, terete or triangular. Flowers 
terminal or axillary, in cymes or solitary, often very showy, sometimes minute and 
inconspicuous. Very numerous in 8. Africa, especially in the Karroo districts ; 
thinly scattered over the warmer parts of the temperate zone. None are of much 
use, except some species of Tetragonia, used as pot-herbs. 
