412 Lxvi. FicoiDE^. [ffalimum 



LOANDA. — A succulent gregarious perennial herb, creeping a long 

 distance ; stems blood-red, prostrate, widely spreading in all directions, 

 occupying very extensive tracts of the sea-shore and conspicuous from 

 afar by its purple colour, the adult plant turning purple or rather red 

 throughout, throwing out adventitious roots from the nodes ; flowering 

 branchlets ascending ; leaves oblong lanceolate, very thick, rather 

 obtuse, grass-green, scarcely glaucescent, the old ones frequently red 

 like the stems ; flowers axillary, on rather long pedicels ; calyx rather 

 fleshy, green outside, prettily rosy inside ; lobes of the calyx-limb 

 arched at the apex, mucronate at the back ; stamens rosy ; anthers of 

 a bright purple-rosy colour ; styles 3 (in some cases), as long as the 

 stamens. On the sea-shore along the coast of the district, Praia de 

 Zamba Grande to the mouth of the river Cuanza, the coast at Bispo, 

 Island of Loanda, etc., very abundant ; fl. Dec. 1858 and July 1854. 

 No. 2384. Leaves very thick, terete, ellipsoidal-cylindrical, in the dry 

 state at length fiat ; flowers somewhat smaller than usual in the species. 

 On the more barren parts of the sea-coast, mixed with the ordinary 

 form, Praia de Bispo ; fl. Dec. 1858. No. 2385. 



MossAMEDES. — A fleshy, herbaceous-green, perennial herb. By the 

 mouth of the river Bero, abundant ; fl. and fr. beginning of Aug. 1859. 

 No. 2390. 



Var. crithmoides. 



Sesuvium crithmoides Welw. Apont. p. 586, n. 33. aS'. Mesem- 

 hryanthoides Welw., I.e., p. 557 sub n, 132. 



A succulent herb, normally perennial, but not uncommonly 

 annual or biennial, fruiting and perishing like other maritime 

 plants ; rootstock thick, much divided at the crown, and giving off 

 numerous stems of 2 to 4 ft., which are prostrate spreading in 

 a circle, deep blood- red, rough with very crowded papillae, and re- 

 peatedly branched ; branchlets ascending, leafy; leaves compressed- 

 cylindrical, fleshy, 1 to 2 in. long, opposite, quasi-sessUe wdth 

 bi'oadly sheathing petioles, longitudinally furrowed above, very 

 glaucous, densely papillose ; flowers axillary or alar, sessile, fully 

 open only about noon, of a very pretty rose-violet colour inside ; 

 caljrx furnished at the base with 5 ovate bracteoles alternating 

 with its segments, shortly funnel-shaped ; calyx-segments 5, longer 

 than the calyx-tube, thick, of a rose-violet colour inside, arched- 

 mucronate at the apex ; sinuses acutely prominent, pungent : 

 petals ; stamens very numerous, irregularly and equally in- 

 serted at the throat of the calyx ; filaments filiform, unequal in 

 length; anthers ellipsoidal, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally; 

 ovary free, ovoid-conical, truncate at the apex, 5-celled ; ovules 

 several in each cell, inserted on the central axis by distinct 

 funicles; styles 5, erect, rather thick-filiform, longer than the 

 ovary, narrowly capitate with the stigmas ; capsule chartaceous, 

 ovoid-conical, circumsciss, tumid about the line of dehiscence ; lid 

 truncate -conical ; seeds several, globose-obovoid, appendaged at 

 the insertion of the funicle almost as the seeds in Hypoxis, very 

 black, smooth. Flowering almost throughout the year. 



Barra do Dande. — A beautiful, apparently perennial herb ; stems 

 deep blood-red, prostrate, spreading in a circle ; leaves fleshy, glaucous, 

 semi-cylindrical ; flowers of a pretty rose colour, rather large for the 



I 



