306 
37. MESEMBRIANTHEMACEA2. 
really stalked but appearing so from tlie yet incomplete deve- 
lopment of both or abortion of one of the branches of the fork 
in which it is as properly sessile as the lower fl. Thus the 
single branch below it has been apparently mistaken sometimes 
for a pedicel. Sep. 5 ovate or lanceolate, gr. outside, pure 
w. within, opening like a star, produced in fr. into ligulate or 
linear-acuminate long gr. leafy points. Stam. 10-12 not ex- 
serted. Fr. rather large obconic pentagonal subadnato-sessile 
invested with the persistent cal. -tube and 5-horned, as it were, 
with its unchanged (not hardened) spreading or erecto-patent 
lobes as long again as the caps, which is 4 or 5 lines long and 
broad. Seeds very small black, sculptured like those of Portu- 
laca oleracea L. but with the radicle less prominent. 
Abundant in Lanzarote close outside the town of Arecife on 
the south side, but omitted by Webb in his Canarian Flora, 
though Lanzarotan spec, from Bourgeau exist in BH. 
Order XXXVII. MESEMBBIAXTHEMACEiE. 
The Fig-Marigold Family. 
Fl. perfect regular. Cal. persistent, the tube fleshy connate 
with the ov., 5- rarely 2-8-partite, lobes herbaceous mostly un- 
equal imbricate in bud. Bet. many indefinite inserted in the 
throat or top of cal. -tube linear or ligulate in several or many 
rows rarely in one row, membranous, deliquescent and subcon- 
fluent in decay. Stam. numerous indefinite in several rows or 
rarely one inserted with the pet. ; fil. free distinct. Ov, 4- or 
5- many-rarely 1-celled ; ovules many with long funicles affixed 
to axile sometimes parietal placentas. Stigmas as many as cells 
of ov. Caps, at first fleshy, then drv and somewhat woody, burst- 
ing when moist longitudinally at the ventral sutures of the spread- 
ing or stellately divergent carpels. Seeds many small ; embryo 
curved round the central alb. — Succulent suffrutescent or her- 
baceous pi., with opposite or alternate thick and fleshy 1. without 
slip, and conspicuous radiant v., purple, p. or w. mostly scent- 
less fl. opening only in bright sunshine. 
1. Mesembriantiiemum. The only genus. Char, that of 
the Order. 
1. Mesembriantiiemum L. 
Fig-Marigold. 
* Herbaceous , annual. 
1. M. NODIFLORUM L. Jlarrilha . 
Evenly and finely papulose ; st. branched procumbent or dif- 
