132 The Flowering Plants of Western India, 



To this order also belongs the genus Cereus. C.grandiflorus, grown 

 in Indian verandas, is, as regards its flowers, one of the most beauti- 

 ful objects of the vegetable world ; and that its splendid blossom lasts 

 but the few hours of a single night, perhaps enhances its value. 



" Do you wish to see the prettiest thing you ever saw in your 

 lives ? . . If so, come this moment to my conservatory. My night - 

 blowing Cereus has her coming-out party to-night." (A long and 

 rather high-flown description follows.) The Bread-winners. 



ORDER 58. DATISCACEJE. 



Flowers small, unisexual, calyx tubular with 3 to 9 teeth, 

 petals none, ovary adherent to the calyx, capsule opening at 

 the top between the styles. 



One of the smallest orders, resembling Begoniaceae, but without the 

 succulent habit. 



TETRAMELES. Stamens 4, inserted round a depressed disk, 

 styles 4, short. 



* T. nudiflora. A large tree, leaves long petioled, roundish 

 or ovate, sometimes lobed, downy beneath, flowers small 

 yellow in panicles, stigmas thick, obliquely truncate, capsule 

 very small, ovoid, glandular. Jangli bhendi. 



The Ghauts (D.) The flowers appear before the leaves. 



ORDER 59. FICOIDE.E. 



Succulent herbs with simple generally opposite leaves and 

 regular flowers, calyx of 4 or 5 segments, free, petals none or 

 small. 



A rather uninteresting order, though the Mesembryanthemums 

 (with very numerous petals) are ornamental garden plants. M. 

 crystallinum is the ice plant. 



Note. All the genera here given are without petals. 



1. SESUVIUM. Leaves fleshy, calyx tubular, stamens many 

 or 5, inserted round the top of the calyx tube, capsule 3 to 5- 

 celled, circumeiss. 



2. TRIANTHEMA. Diffuse, prostrate, leaves in pairs, one large 

 and one small, the petioles dilated and joined at the base, 

 flowers from the dilated petioles, stamens inserted near the 

 top of the calyx tube, capsule 1 or 2-celled, circumeiss, more 

 or less beaked. 



3. MOLLUGO* Leaves entire, with scarious stipules soon 

 falling off, flowers axillary ; calyx deeply 5-divided, stamens 

 hypogynous, ovary free, capsule membranous, 3 to 5-celled. 



