PLANTS OF BERMUDA. 31 



1. S. Portulaeastrum. L. (Seaside Purslane). A prostrate, peren- 

 nial plant ; stems brittle, branched and rooting at nodes, forming 

 patches several feet* in diameter ; leaves succulent, narrow- oblong, 

 ]3lunt pointed, tapering into the sheathing base, sometimes fiat but 

 frequently distended, sub -cylindrical ; flowers sessile ; calyx nve- 

 XDartite, persistent, limb horned, with a pinli petal-like lining ; 

 stamens numerous, arising from tube of calyx ; styles three, decid- 

 uous ; capsule three-celled, many-seeded. Distribution, Florida 

 and West Indies ; habitat, sandy bays, &c., frequent. Flowers 

 half- inch ; January to May. 



The following doubtful members of this order are also to be found 

 in gardens : Tetragonia expansa (New Zealand Spinach), now be- 

 coming a favourite substitute for spinach in hot countries, on 

 account of its rapid grov/th and great succlency even in the hottest 

 and driest weather. (I have found it growing wild in the most 

 barren parts of the Island of Ascension, apparently sustained only 

 by nightly dew.) The stems are trailing, winged ; leaves broadly 

 ovate, long, pointed, with chrystalline glands spread over surface ; 

 flowers axillary, destitute of petals ; fruit a four- angled, horned, 

 bony nut. This plant is also to be met with occasionally as an 

 escape from cultivation. 



Mesemhryanthenmm ChrystalUnwii and M. cordifol'mm (Ice plants), 

 the former with white, and the latter with pink flowers, are also 

 common : they are remarkable for the frosted aiDj^earance imparted 

 to their leaves and stems by the ice-like glands scattered over 

 them, 



JSfat : Ord : 29 FiqmyaceiB, 



Trees, with simple erect stems, and milky juice ; leaves alternate ; 

 flowers in corymbs, usually unisexual ; calyx minute, five -toothed ; 

 petals five, distinct or united ; stamens ten, inserted into corolla ; 

 ovary superior, one-celled, many seeded. Fruit fleshy. 



1. C. Papaya (Papaw). A straight unbranched tree, ten to 

 twenty-five feet high. Stem naked, to near the summit, marked 

 with scars of the fallen petioles ; leaves one to one and a half feet 

 diameter, on long stalks, palmately five to seven lobed. Female 

 tree with solitary, sessile, axillary flowers ; petals five to six, dis- 

 tinct, imbricated ; styles five, leafy. Fruit round, yellow, size of 

 orange, Male tree with long- stalked many flowered, axillary 

 panicles ; corolla tube, long, narrow ; stamens ten, five -longer 

 alternate with five-shorter, inserted in mouth of corolla-tube. 

 Occasionally hermaphrodite and bearing a fruit which is more pear- 

 shaped than in female tree. Distribution introduced into all hot 

 Countries, and general throughout Bermuda, in a state of semi- 

 cultivation. The ripe fruit is eaten as a dessert, and \yhen unripe is 

 valued in cooking for its x)roperty of softening animal fibre, and 

 assisting digestion. Flov/ers and fruits, March to ISTovember. The 

 rapid growth of this tree is surprising and but little exaggerated by 

 Waller, who says : 



