268 membranous mfjrginel wings, infolded end united in pairs betv/een the 



valves en^ connecting then together. Seeds very small, ovoid, 



smoot^.-- N. 3. Br. in The Gardeners' Chronicle, 1925, Vol. L>--'^- 

 VlII, p. 412. 



Species 2, natives of the Island of St. ^-^elena and G^eat 

 Namanualand. H. cr^T'tentha , ^^^^.B^., ^ is the type of the genus. 



The name is derived from the Greek, hydrodes, watery, because 

 the St. Helena plant is stated to be "so very succulent that it will 

 not surnort its o^t weight v;hen held un from the ground, and v/eter 

 is seen to dro^N fro-n it v.^hen simply carriedin the hand vithout any 

 pressure," according to ^"ellis, St. Helena, p. 241. 



1. H. crj'-ptantha , ^^."S.Bp,-- -ts-nnual; branches prostrate, 4-5 

 lines thick, terete, very succulent, glabrous, papillate, bright 

 green, changing to yellov' as it gets old. L^'-ves alternate or oc- 

 casionally opposite, t-2 inche long, 3-5 lines thick, somewhat 

 fusiform-cyldinric , obtuse, ^lowers arranged in an irregularly 

 c^rnose manner. Pedicels about 6 lines lonr?, stout and stem-like, 

 end together with the cal^'-x-tube selling in fruit to an ovoid form 

 upto 9 lines in diameter. Calyx-tube continuous with the pedicel, 

 and above its union with the ovpry about 2 lines long; lobes at 

 first (according to the figures) li-4 lines long, becoming much en- 

 larged in fr\iit, terete, obtuse. Corolla 3-4 lines in diameter 

 (according to the figures); petals apparentlj'^ about 3-4^ lines 

 long, united belov into a distinct tube about 2 lines long, v;hite. 

 Stamens 1-li line long (only 2 ween), filaments filiform, v.'hite, 

 anthers ar^parently yellov;. Stigmas not seen, ell destroyed by in- 

 sects. O-very nearly superior, conically ovoid, ^''ruit about 7-8 

 lines in diameter on the living Plant according to the figured, the 

 actual dried capsule being 4 lines in diameter. Seeds 1/3 -line 

 long, oboid, brovm, — 



l", cr^^ptanthum. Hook, f . , Icon, ^la t., VqI. II^ p. 25, t. 1034 

 (1868); I-ellis, St. •^'ielena. p. 241, t. 26fexcluding the dissections 

 from both plates, Berger, ^^es. und Port. p. 42. 



Island of St. ^^elena : On a plain at rosperous ^ay, B^rchell 

 115. "It gros on the hottest parts, in the most barren, , arid, rocky 

 soil near the sea, in the neighbourhood of Sandy Bay beech and 

 Turv's Can Bay, and is to be met with generally on the southern 

 and eastern outskirts of the island." (i-^llis) 



Of this very remarkable riant only a_ single specimen (v;hich 

 Tvas collected by Burchell) exists in the ^ew Herbarium. From this 

 specimen the artist (W. Fitch) made the dissections which appear 

 upon the Plates ouoted, the originals of the drawings being made 

 upon the sheet containing the specimen. I have carefully examined 

 the dissected flowers from v.'hich Fitch made those analyses, and also 

 t\vo flowers upon the specimen without damaging flowers upon the 

 specimen v/ithout damaging them, and find to my surprise that all 

 his drawings o:''" the f lower-strucure are absolutely wrong, -"^'or the 

 sepnls are not free to the base nor gibbose on the back as repre- 

 sented; the retals are not free to the base; the stamens do not arise 

 from the tor of the ovary around the thickened base of a style; 

 there a^^rienrs to be no st le at all, so far as I can discover, but 

 the stigmas, free perts of the petals and the stamens seem to liave 

 been eaten by mites in the flowers examined; the ovcry is not infe- 

 rior and is only 5-c-lled, not Gecelled, as represented in the dis- 

 sections. I believe tiaat --r. Fitch's drawings were portly concocted 

 from the descriptions given in books of the structure of the genus 

 ^•^esembryanthemum. They certainly do not represent the floral struc- 



