21. FICOIDACEzE. 



67 



1. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, L. 



Icr-pJ(nit. Prostrate fleshy glabrous annual, covered with 

 smooth, glistening papill?e ; leaves large, thick, flat, wavy, 

 the radical ones oval-acute, truncate or cordate at base, 

 on a broad 3-nerved petiole, stem-leaves alternate, sessile, 

 oboval ; flowers white, on short terminal or leaf-opposed 

 peduncles ; calyx-lobes 5. unequal ; styles 5 ; fruit 5- 

 angled. 



Sandhills and scrub along coast ; a troublesome weed 

 in cultivated laud and scrub near Port Germein. — Oct. -Dec. 

 — Mediterranean region. 



2. M. cordifolium, L. Prostrate perennial, 

 minutely papillose; leaves opposite, flat, oval, subcordate 

 at base, shortly .stalked : flowers small, purple, solitary, 

 axillary ; calyx-lobes 4, 2 inner ones awlshaped ; styles 4 j, 

 fruit ovoid. 



Like the other species mentioned here, this is an escape 

 from gardens; sandy places. -Most of the year. — South 

 Africa. 



3. M. acina.ctforme, 



L. Fleshy glabrous peren- 

 nial, with prostrate, root- 

 ing stems ; leaves oppo- 

 site, united at base, large, 

 glo.ssy, linear -triangular 

 with nearly equal sides, 

 edges often red, the outer 

 edge incurved, rough and 

 hardened in its upper 

 part ; flowers large, showy, 

 light-yellow, turning pink, 

 pedunculate and terminal 

 between the last pair of 

 leaves ; calyx - tube and 

 peduncle with 2 opposite 

 acute keels, decurrent from 

 the 2 outer lobes ; stvles 

 9-11. 



Mesembryanthemui 

 acinaciforme. 



Very near our native 

 M. a qu Hate rale. Haw. (Pigface), but the leaves are thicker, 

 more acutely angled, of a darker green, and the flowers 

 laTger. 



Sandhills along Grange Eoad. — Sept. -Nov. — South 

 Africa. 



4. M. aurantiacum, Haw. Undershrub, with 

 wiry, erect or ascending, branched stems; leaves opposite, 

 small, linear-triangular and tapering upwards, green-dotted ; 

 flowers bright-yellow, showy, on a peduncle thickened up- 



