408 Lxv. CACTACE^. [ffariotct 



sometimes rooting at the base, usually proliferous in a verticillate manner 

 at the apex ; branches smooth, cylindrical, glaucescent-green, jointed, 

 the younger ones squamulose ; flowers whitish, tending to a pale-sulphur 

 colour, rather small, very crowded, lateral on the scars of fallen scales, 

 scentless ; calyx adnate to the ovary, with a superior free unequally 

 toothed or lobed limb ; petals 6 or 7 ; stamens about 20, about as long 

 as the petals or a little shorter, with erect filaments and whitish 

 anthers ; style rather thick, erect ; stigma 4- partite, with ovate-oblong, 

 obtuse, thick, ei-ect-spreading lobed segments ; ovary 1 -celled, many- 

 ovuled ; placentation parietal ; berry subspherical-urceolate, as large 

 as a moderate-sized pea, from whitish to pale-yellowish, almost pellucid, 

 scarred with the remains of the calyx-limb ; pulp viscid, investing the 

 seeds ; seeds black, glossy, subpyriform, some almost reniform. 

 Terrestrial, by the very high volcanic, almost vertical, rocks of the 

 fortress of Pungo Andongo, on the south-west side, in company with 

 orchids and species of Sarcostemma, not uncommon ; fl. and nearly ripe 

 fr. beginning of Dec. 1856 ; ripe fr. Jan. 1857. No. 878. 



Welwitsch obtained in April 1866 a flowering and fruiting specimen 

 of this species cultivated in Kew Gardens from Jamaica, and, after 

 carefully comparing it with the above Nos., satisfied himself as to the 

 specific identity, noticing only that the Angolan plants were a little 

 more robust. 



LXVI. FICOIDE^. 



In Angola proper a variety of Halimum Portulacastrum covers 

 extensive tracts in the island of Loanda, and various species of 

 Mollugo grow by sandy road sides leading into the interior and 

 about stagnant pools in the littoral and also in the mountainous 

 regions ; the New Zealand spinach, Tetragonia exjmnsa Murr., has 

 been introduced. 



The corm-like form of rootstock in the Psammatro'pha which 

 occurs in Huilla is very interesting, and recalls the corm-mass 

 which occurs above the ground in several specie« of Cissus and 

 Pachypodium ; this condition indicates a hot and rainless winter, 

 the enlargement of the stem providing, as it weie, winter-quarters 

 and store-houses during the trying winter season when everything 

 of a tender nature is scorched up or disintegrated. 



In lAmeuvi the presence or absence of petals can never serve 

 for the discrimination of species, much less for divisions into 

 sections, as used in the Flora Capensis, for sometimes in the same 

 plant both apetalous and petaliferous flowers are met with ; the 

 division into sections, according as the corymbs are sessile or 

 pedunculate, is also of doubtful application. 



It is yet to be ascertained whether all the species of Limeum 

 are poisonous, or only a few of them, or possibly none ; Welwitsch 

 noticed that Z. glomeratum E. & Z. was eaten by oxen about 

 Humpata. The variety leiocarpum of L, viscosum L. contains in 

 abvmdance a material for producing a yellow dye. 



The occurrence in Mossamedes of two species of Mesemhryanthe- 

 mum suggests a sub-tropical affinity for the flora of that district, 

 or almost a Cape connection. 



