Mesevihrymiihemum'] lxvi. ficoide/E. 409 



1. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM Dill., L. ; Benth & Hook. f. Gen. 

 PI. i. p. 853. 



1 . M. dimorphum Welw. ex Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 582. 

 MossAMEDES. — A glaucous succulent prostrate herb, sometimes 



annual and sparingly flowering, in other cases lasting two or three 

 years or even longer, and suffruticose tortuous decumbent very rigid 

 with numerous flowers and somewhat woody stem ; flowers whitish,- 

 polypetalous, terminating the secund branchlets. In stony-sandy 

 places near maritime rocks, from the Giraul as far as Praia da Amelia, 

 not uncommon ; fl. and fr. July 1859. No. 2377. 



2. M. dactylinum Welw., I.e. 



MossAMEDES. — A very succulent prostrate annual herb ; root 

 simple, filiform, penetrating deeply into the soil ; stems 1 to 3 in. high, 

 cylindrical, abbreviated, once or twice dichotomously divided into 

 short, spreading or decumbent, leafy branches ; leaves conical-cylin- 

 drical, obtuse, very turgid, terete, nearly finger-shaped, very succulent, 

 approximated, quite smooth, 1 to 2J in. long, broad and clasping at 

 the base, gradually tapering towards the obtuse apex ; the primordial 

 ones decumbent, the upper ones nearly erect or erect-patent, all of 

 them of a deep reddish brown colour ; flowers solitary, subsessile, 

 terminating the main stem and branchlets, nearly concealed between 

 two very turgid ovoid convex obtuse erect bracts, about i in. in 

 diameter, white, very small, linear, erect-patent ; fruits at length 

 concealed between the succulent bracts. In hot conglomerate sand 

 and at the base of tertiary rocks near the sea shore between Cazimba 

 and Cabo Negro, in company with Tetragonia reduplicata Welw. and 

 some species of Halimum ; fl. and young fr. in spring, 3 Sept. 1859. 

 No. 2376. 



2. TETRAGONIA L. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. p. 854. 



1. T. reduplicata Welw. ex Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 583. 

 MossAMEDES. — An erect fleshy brittle undershrub, 1| to 2J ft. high ; 



stem and older branches varying from yellow to whitish, striate ; 

 branches subvirgate, ascending : leaves oval, obtuse, abruptly narrowed 

 at the base into a petiole of J to | in. long, deep-green, delicately 

 papillose, fleshy, brittle, nearly glabrous, in the living state distinctly 

 doubled back along the midrib and in this way curved inwards and 

 upwards in a falcate form, giving the plant a crisp appearance ; 

 flowers axillary, arranged in very lax reduced racemes on short or 

 longer peduncles, yellowish-green inside ; calyx densely papillose, with 

 4 or occasionally 3 ovate unequal obtuse very patent lobes ; petals ; 

 stamens 12 to 20 or co ; anthers yellow ; styles 3 or 2, very thick, 

 densely papillose on all sides, erect-patent, a little longer than the 

 calyx-lobes ; fruit 3- or 4-winged, obovoid- or depressed-globose, not 

 nerved between the wings ; wings semicircular, rounded or very 

 obtuse at the apex of the fruit, moderately narrowed towards the 

 base ; young fruit f in. high and broad, by abortion 2- or 1 -celled. 

 Along the sandy rocks near the sea-shore between Mossamedes and 

 Cabo Negro at A Cazimba ; fl. and fr. beginning of Sept. 1859. 

 No. 2379. 



2. T. expansa Murr. in Comm. Soc. Getting, vi. Phys. p. 13, 

 t. 5 (1785) ; Welw. Apont. p. 557, sub n. 132; Pax in Engl. & 

 Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. iii. pars 1, p. 44, fig. 18 (1889). 



