438 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
Succulent, climbing, herbaceous or shrubby plants, with coloured 
calyx ; naked flowers ; distinct sepals, with stamens opposite them ; CXCIX. Basellacez. 
no petals ; 
carpel; an erect seed. 
Herbaceous and shrubby succulent plants, with opposite simple 
leaves; fl ften termi and showy; numerous narrow petals ; 
definite sepals; indefinite stamens ; inferi CC. Mesembryacea. 
Ss 
rior many-celled ovary ; 
Herbaceous plants or small shrubs, leaves succulent, alternate, or 
non-stipulate, often covered with watery pustules; flowers small and : 
axillary ; calyx three, five cleft, partially;adherent to the ovary ; petals CCI, Tetragoniaceze 
none; stamens definite, alternate with sepals; ovary two to nime- 
celled; carpels, several consolidated, 
Small herbs, with opposite non-stipulate leaves; minute axillary 
sessile flowers; tubular calyx; four or five-toothed stamens, one to 
ten inserted in the orifice of the tube; no petals; ovary simple, CCIL, Scleranthacez. 
superior, one-seeded; fruit a membranous utricle enclosed in the 
hardened calyx. : 
The Basels are climbing, herbaceous, or shrubby tropical plants, 
with double coloured perianth, simple ovary, stamens inserted 
in the sides of the receptacle; characters which procured their 
separation from the Chenopods. The leaves of several are used 
as pot-herbs. 
The Mrsempryace® or Ice plants, are low branching, half 
shrubby, herbaceous plants, chiefly of the hot and arid plains of 
Africa, the shores of the Mediterranean, Australia, and South 
America. The Mesembryanthemum macrorhizum, the Ice plant, has 
the leaves and stem densely covered with papule, resembling glo- 
bules of water or granules of ice, which sparkle in the sun; these 
secretions are saline, somewhat nauseous to the taste, and supply 
alkali for glass-works in the South of Europe, where they abound. 
Medicinally they are diuretic and demulcent. M. edule, the Hot- 
tentot Fig, is abundant on the sandy plains round the Cape of 
Good Hope, and is edible when ripe; the leaves, pickled, being 
-substituted for the pickled cucumber, and its juice used medi- 
cinally. The Rose of Jericho (M. tripolium) has the singular 
property of gradually opening its seed-vessels on the approach of 
rain, contracting again when they become dry—a wonderful pro- 
vision for the propagation of its species, for the seeds which have 
been closely shut up in the dry season are thus poured out of the 
open capsules when the growing season is at hand. 
e TrTRAGONIACES are plants of no beauty and little interest. 
Like the Ice plants, they are found on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, at the Cape of Good Hope, and also in the South nee 
