412 LXVI. FICOIDEE. [Halimum 
Loanpa.—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 flat ; 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. S. Mesem- 
bryanthoides Welw., l.c., 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 papille, and re- 
peatedly branched ; branchlets ascending, leafy; leaves compressed- 
cylindrical, fleshy, 1 to 2 in. long, opposite, quasi-sessile with 
broadly 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 ; 
calyx 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 0 ; 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 sceds in Hypomis, very 
black, smooth. Flowering almost throughout the year. 
Barra Do Danpe.—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 
