Mesembryanthennum] LXVI. FICOIDEE. 409 
1. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM Dill., L.; Benth & Hook. f. Gen. 
Pl. i. p. 853. 
1. M. dimorphum Welw. ex Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 582. 
MossaMEDES.—A._ glaucous succulent prostrate herb, sometimes 
annual and sparingly flowering, in other cases lasting two or three 
years or even longer, and suffruticose tortuous decumbent very rigid 
with numerous flowers and somewhat woody stem ; flowers whitish, 
polypetalous, terminating the secund branchlets. In stony-sandy 
places near maritime rocks, from the Giraul as far as Praia da Amelia, 
not uncommon ; fl. and fr. July 1859. No. 2377. 
2. M. dactylinum Welw., J.c. 
MossaMEDES.—A very succulent prostrate annual herb; root 
simple, filiform, penetrating deeply into the soil; stems 1 to 8 in. high, 
cylindrical, abbreviated, once or twice dichotomously divided into 
short, spreading or decumbent, leafy branches ; leaves conical-cylin- 
drical, obtuse, very turgid, terete, nearly finger-shaped, very succulent, 
approximated, quite smooth, 1 to 23 in. long, broad and clasping at 
the base, gradually tapering towards the obtuse apex ; the primordial 
ones decumbent, the upper ones nearly erect or erect-patent, all of 
them of a deep reddish brown colour; flowers solitary, subsessile, 
terminating the main stem and branchlets, nearly concealed between 
two very turgid ovoid convex obtuse erect bracts, about } in. in 
diameter, white, very small, linear, erect-patent; fruits at length 
concealed between the succulent bracts. In hot conglomerate sand 
and at the base of tertiary rocks near the sea shore between Cazimba 
and Cabo Negro, in company with Tetragonia reduplicata Welw. and 
some species of Halimum ; fl, and young fr. in spring, 3 Sept. 1859. 
No. 2376. 
2. TETRAGONIA L.; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl. i. p. 854. 
1. T. reduplicata Welw. ex Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. p. 583. 
Mossamepes.—An erect fleshy brittle undershrub, 14 to 23 ft. high ; 
stem and older branches varying from yellow to whitish, striate ; 
branches subvirgate, ascending : leaves oval, obtuse, abruptly narrowed 
at the base into a petiole of 4 to 3 in. long, deep-green, delicately 
papillose, fleshy, brittle, nearly glabrous, in the living state distinctly 
doubled back along the midrib and in this way curved inwards and 
upwards in a falcate form, giving the plant a crisp appearance ; 
flowers axillary, arranged in very lax reduced racemes on short or 
longer peduncles, yellowish-green inside ; calyx densely papillose, with 
4 or occasionally 3 ovate unequal obtuse very patent lobes ; petals 0 ; 
stamens 12 to 20 or «; anthers yellow ; styles 3 or 2, very thick, 
densely papillose on all sides, erect-patent, a little longer than the 
calyx-lobes ; fruit 3- or 4-winged, obovoid- or depressed-globose, not 
nerved between the wings; wings semicircular, rounded or very 
obtuse at the apex of the fruit, moderately narrowed towards the 
base ; young fruit # in. high and broad, by abortion 2- or 1-celled. 
Along the sandy rocks near the sea-shore between Mossamedes and 
Cabo Negro at A Cazimba; fl. and fr. beginning of Sept. 1859. 
No. 2379. 
2. T. expansa Murr. in Comm. Soc. Gotting. vi. Phys. p. 13, 
t. 5 (1785) ; Welw. Apont. p. 557, sub n. 132; Pax in Engl. & 
Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. iii. pars 1, p. 44, fig. 18 (1889). 
