260 FICOIDEiE. Sesuvium. 



as to its N. American occurrence, to be satisfactorily classed as a variety of the preceding, 

 especially in the absence of more evident intergradation. An extreme form with stem, 

 leaves, and sepals densely vesicular-verrucose in the manner of Mesemhryanthemum has 

 been collected in the sink of the Mojave by Parish Bros. A tendency toward this character 

 is, however, manifested by specimens from other regions. 



* * Stamens 5, alternate with the sepals. 

 S. pentandrum, Ell. Procumbent or ascending, much branched : leaves obovate to 

 elliptic-spatulate, rounded at the apex, entire, cuneate at the base : flowers rather small, 

 closely sessile : calyx 2^ to 3^ lines long, 5-parted to below the middle ; segments ovate- 

 oblong, obtuse but rather sharply cornute dorsally just below the apex. — Sk. i. 556 ; Fenzl, 

 Ann. Wien. Mus. i. 347 (later and independent publication of same species and, by curious 

 coincidence, under same name) ; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 230; Chapm. Fl. 44. 5. Portulacastrum, 

 Muhl. Cat. 49 ; Gray, Man. eds. 2-5 ; not L. S. sessile, Nutt. Gen. i. 306 ; Torr. Fl. N. & 

 Midd. States, 478 ; not Pers. 5. maritimum, Britt. Sterns & Poggenb. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 20. 

 Pharnaceum maritimum, Walt. Car. 117. Mollugo maritima, Seriuge in DC. Prodr. i. 393. 



— Sea-beaches and low sandy banks near coast, Long Island to Florida and Louisiana, 

 common; fl. midsummer to late autumn. (Cuba.) 



6. TETRAGONIA, L. (Terpaywvos, four-cornered, in allusion to the 



form of the calyx-covered fruit ; the name TeTpaywvta was used by Theophrastus 



for Euonymus Suropceus, L.) — Syst. Nat. ed. 1, & Gen. no. 406 ; Fenzl, Ann. 



Wien. Mus. ii. 287 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 854. Tetragonocarpus, Commelyn, 



Amstel. ii. t. 102, 103. Demidovia, Pall. Demid. t. 1. Tetragonella, Miq. in 



Lehm. PL Preiss. i. 245. — Fleshy herbs and undershrubs, chiefly S. African 



and of littoral habitat. A single species, with alternate leaves, tends to escape 



from cultivation in N. America. 



T. expAnsa, Murr. (New Zealand Spinach.) Succulent annual with numerous spreading 

 or procumbent branches, more or less thickly covered with crystalline papulas : leaves ovate, 

 entire or merely undulate, obtuse or acutish, 1 to 2| inches long, abruptly contracted at the 

 base to a broad cuneately winged petiole : subsessile flowers solitary in the axils, small, 

 yellowish green: limb of the gamophyllous 4-lobed calyx widely spreading: styles 5 to 9 ; 

 cells of the ovary as many, 1-ovuled: fruit a cartilaginous somewhat compressed 4(-6)- 

 horned nut, closely invested by the calyx and becoming 4 to 6 lines in diameter. — Comm. 

 Gottiug. vi. 13; DC. PI. Grass, t. 114; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 2362; Greene, Fl. Francis. 240. 



— In old fields about Manatee, Florida, Garher, and on the beaches of the Central Califor- 

 uian coast; doubtless escaped from gardens where sometimes cultivated as a salad plant. 

 (Introd. from China, Japan, New Zealand.) For historical note on garden use, see Sturte- 

 vant, Am. Nat. xxiv. 32. 



7. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, Dill.' (Arbitrarily altered from the 

 earlier Mesembrianthemum, a name first used by Jakob Breyne and clearly 

 derived from jaeo->y/i./3pta, mid-day, and av9efxov, flower. In its later form the first 

 part of the word is derived by Linnaeus, in his Philos. Bot. 177, from /icVo?, 

 middle, and ifxjSpvMv, embryo, without very obvious application.) — Nov. Gen. 

 148, & Elth. t. 179-215; L. Gen. no. 453; Haworth, Obs. Mesemb. ; Salm- 

 Dyck, Monog. Gen. Aloes et Mesembryanthemi ; Bonder, Fl. Cap. ii. 387. — A 

 large genus of low and mostly very succulent herbs and shrubs, chiefly African, 

 much cultivated both for their showy many-petalled flowers and their grotesque 

 Aloe-like foliage. Three species of wide distribution and probably introduced 

 without the agency of man have become established in the mild and equable 

 climate of Central and Southern California. It seems best to adopt the Linnaean 

 orthography in the generic name notwithstanding its strained etymology. 



