760 Convolvulaceae. 
Flowers small, aggregated at the tip of the branchlets in bracteate 
spikes. 
One or a few closely allied species. 
1059. Cressa cretica L. Spec. Plant. I (1753), p. 223. — Boiss. 
Flor. Or. IV, p. 114. — Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. Ee. p. 108 
no. 767. — Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. d’Eg., Supplem. p. 768. — 
Aschers.-Schweinf. Primit. Flor. Marmaric., p. 659 no. 220. — Choisy 
in DC. Prodrom. IX, p. 440. — Stems slender, terete, woody, a few 
em to 30—40 cm long, with numerous spreading or ascending, 
hairy, densely-leaved branchlets. Leaves ovate to lanceolate, acute, 
sessile, 5—6 mm long. Flowers aggregated in dense spikes at the 
end of the branchlets, each subtended by a reduced leaf. Calyx 
hairy, 27/, mm long. Sepals concave, obovate, subacute. Corolla 
white, about 51/, mm long; tube cylindrical, enveloped by the calyx; 
lobes narrowly ovate, about as long as the tube, hairy on the outside. 
Stamens rather longer than the corolla. Capsule ovoid, 2"/,—5 mm 
long. Pericarp thin, brittle. Seed ovoid, glabrous. — Flow. December 
to March. 
M. ma. Marmarica; Matruga; Dakalla; Mariut; Alexandria-West 
and -Kast; Mandara. — M. p. N.d. N.f. N.v. D. 1. D. i. D. a. sept. 
D. a. mer. Everywhere common plant in sandy and salty places. 
Local name: nadawe (Fork.); abi hosiba (Schweinfurth); mulley ; 
sebakh (Ascherson); nt-’em (Ascherson). 
Also known from all the other parts of North Africa, Tropical Africa, 
Southern Europe, Orient and everywhere in damp sandy places especially 
by the sea, in both hemispheres. 
434, (2.) Seddera Hochst. 
Sepals acute or obtuse, subequal or the outer ones slightly larger. 
Corolla funnel-shaped; lobes very short, or longer. Stamens inserted 
low down in the corolla-tube; filaments filiform, dilated at the hase 
and often appendaged; anthers oblong. Ovary 2-celled, 4-ovuled, 
hairy at the apex; style bifid almost or quite to the base; stigmas 
more or less peltate and orbicular, sometimes bilobed. Capsule 
4-valved, valves thinly rigid. Seeds dark brown or black, glabrous; 
cotyledons broad, plicate. — Small shrubs, with prostrate to suberect 
branches, sometimes spinescent. Leaves entire, small. Flowers 
axillary, solitary or aggregated into terminal spikes or into stalked 
or sessile dense few-flowered cymes. Corolla small, 12 mm or less 
‘in diam. 
Species about 15, chiefly African and Arabian. 
