140 CACTACEAE. [Sesuvium. 
Styles free to the base, or connate. Capsule several-celled, with ape! 
or basal ace loculicidal or circumscissile. Otherwise as in P 
tulacaceae 
Inbiodien the genus Mesembryanthemum, some species of which are cultivated. 
1. SESUVIUM, L. 
Calyx 5-parted, purplish inside, free, persistent. Petals wanting. Stamens 
5—60, inserted on the calyx. Styles discreet, 3—5. Capsule free, 3—5- 
ircumscissile, many-seeded. — Succulent herbs with opposite 
less, without stipules. Flowers axillary, solitary or in cymes. 
mall genus of littoral plants, spread over most tropical region: 
. Portulacastrum, I. — DO. Prod. IT, 453. — A prostrate or 
Stating aquatic herb. Leaves fleshy spathulate or lanceolate, 1'/2‘ long, 
tapering toward a sheathing base. Flowers solitary in the axils, on 
sone of 1—2”. Calyx 4. Stamens numer 
ous. 
m in and near wet ditches and ponds along the coast. Is found in most 
Bees colina 
OrpeR XXXVII. CACTACEAE. 
Sepals and petals numerous, imbricate in oe. rows, adherent to the 
8 seed 
Fleshy, mostly pea plants of various shapes, globular or columnar 
and many-angle r flattened and jointed, the abortive leaf-buds trans- 
formed into Recs tubercles. Flowers solitary. 
1. OPUNTIA, Tournef. 
Sepals and petals not united into a prolonged tube, spreading, regular, 
with bristles, down and often spines, supported by a caducous scale-like 
leaf or bract. 
An American genus of many species. 
71. 0. Tuna, Mill. — Stem much branching, erect; the joints flat, 
ovate. Tubercles bearing bristles, down and 4 or 5 large spreading 
flavescent spines. Flowers lateral, orange. Stamens shorter than the 
corolla and nearly equalling the pyle Berry obovate, truncate, as large 
as a small hen’s egg, purplish, covered with minute uncinate bristles. — 
' Caetus Tuna, L. 
