Sesuvium.] AIZOACEAE. 549 



general. Its spread is chiefly due to its use as a hedge 

 plant. Yern. Hind. Nagphana. 



Family LXXYII. AIZOACEAE. 



Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves simple, often fleshy, opposite 

 alternate or falsely whorled ; stipules scarious or 0. Flowers 

 regular, hermaphrodite or rarely polygamous, in cymes or fascicles, 

 rarely solitary. Calyx of 4-5 sepals, free or rarely adnate to the 

 ovary, usually persistent. Petals usually 0, when present small. 

 Stamens perigynous or hypogynous, definite or indefinite, some- 

 times with staminodes ; filaments free or connate in a cup ; anthers 

 oblong. Ovary free, 2-5-celled, syncarpous or rarely apocarpous ; 

 ovules many in each carpel, axile or solitary basal ; styles as many 

 as the carpels. Fruit usually capsular, dehiscing loculicidally or 

 circumscissly, sometimes of indehiscent cocci. Seeds many or 

 1 in each carpel, usually reniform, compressed ; testa membranous 

 or crustaceous, often pitted or tuberculate ; albumen mealy, 

 surrounded by the curved or annular embryo. 



Fruit syncarpous : 



Calyx-tube elongate ; stamens inserted on the calyx-tube ; capsule 

 circumsciss ; petals : 



Ovary and capsule 3-5-celled 1. Sesuvium. 



Ovary and capsule 1-2-celled 2. Trianthema. 



Calyx deeply 5-partite ; stamens hypogynous ; capsule 3-5-celled, 

 loculicidal : 



Petals many, small ; seeds arillate \....S. Orygia. 



Petals ; seeds sometimes appendaged 4. Mollugo. 



Eruit apocarpous ; carpels 3-5 , 1 - seeded ; petals 5. Gisekia. 



1. Sesuvium, Linn. 



Herbs or undershrubs. erect or prostrate, branched, succulent. 

 Leaves opposite, entire, fleshy ; stipules or the petioles con- 

 nected by a stipuliform membrane. Flowers axillary, sessile or 

 peduncled, solitary or clustered ; bracteoles 2 or 0. Calyx-tube 

 turbinate ; lobes 5, lanceolate, persistent, coloured within, apicu- 

 late below the tip, hyaline on the margins. Petals 0. Stamens 5 or 

 many, inserted round the top of the calyx- tube ; filaments usually 

 connate at base. Ovary free, 3-5-celled ; ovules numerous on axile 

 placentas ; styles 3-5. Fruit an ovate membranous 3-5-celled, 



