190. CUCURBITACER. [Steyos. 
1. S. angulata, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1013.— Stems trailing or | 
‘climbing, usually from 2 ft. to 10ft. long but sometimes much 
more, glabrous or more or less scabrid. Leaves on long petioles, 
2-6in. diam. or more, ovate-cordate to reniform, palmately ~ 
-6-T-lobed, the central lobe the longest, membranous, scabrid 
with short stiff hairs or almost glabrous; tendrils very long, 
branched. Flowers 4+in. diam., greenish; males racemose on a 
long peduncle; females often from the same axil, capitate on a 
short peduncle. Fruits clustered, $in. long, ovoid, compressed, 
densely covered with barbed spines. — Forst. Prodr. n. 363; A. 
fitch. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 323; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.i. 72; Handb. N.Z. 
Fl. 82; Benth. Fl. Austral. in. 322; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 183. 
S. australis, Hndl. Prodr. Fl. Norf. 67; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 525. 
Kermavec Isxtanps: Abundant, attaining a largesize, WcGillivray, T. F.C. 
NortH Isuanp: In various places on the coast, as far south as Hawke’s Bay; 
more plentiful on the outlying islands than on the mainland. Sourm Istanp: 
Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander. Mawha. November-— 
March. Also in North and South America, Australia, Norfolk Island, Lord © 
Howe Island, and Polynesia. 
OrperR XXXII. FICOIDEA. 
Annual or perennial herbs, rarely undershrubs, of very various — 
habit. Leaves opposite or alternate or whorled, simple, often fleshy, 
stipules wanting or scarious. Flowers regular, usually herma- 
phrodite, solitary or fascicled or cymose. Calyx free or adnate to. 
the ovary, 4-d-celled or -partite, imbricate. Petals either narrow ; 
and. numerous, or 4—5 and small, or altogether wanting. Stamens 
perigynous or rarely hypogynous, few or many ; filaments free or: 
connate at the base. Ovary superior or inferior, 2—5-celled ; styles 
as many as the cells, free or united at the base; ovules either 
solitary in the cells and basal, or numerous and axile. Fruit 
generally a capsule with loculicidal or transverse dehiscence, more 
rarely drupaceous or separating into 1-seeded cocci. Seeds solitary 
or many, usually compressed ; albumen scanty or copious ; embryo 
slender, curved round the albumen, terete. 
A large order, comprising 22 genera and nearly 500 species, mostly tropical 
or sub-tropical, and especially plentiful in South Africa; rare or absent in 
cold climates. The properties of the order are unimportant. Many species of 
Mesembryanthemum have showy flowers, and are cultivated in gardens; and 
Tetrayonia is occasionally used as a pot herb. The remaining genera are mostly 
insignificant weeds. Both the New Zealand genera are widely distributed, 
although much more numerously represented in South Africa than elsewhere. 
1. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, Linn. 
More or less succulent herbs or undershrubs. Leaves usually 
opposite, thick and fleshy, trigonous or terete or flat. Flowers con- 
spicuous, terminating the branches or axillary. Calyx-tube adnate 
with the ovary; lobes 5. Petals numerous, linear, in one or 
several rows. Stamens numerous, in many rows Ovary inferior, 
