MESEMBRIANTHEMUM . 
307 
fuse ; 1. opposite or alternate fleshy subcylindric obtuse ciliated 
at the base; fl. axillary or terminal sessile or subsessile small; 
sep. 5 unequal cylindric like the 1. ; pet. small not longer than 
the outer sep. — Desf. i. 398 ; JRrot. ii. 331 ; Fl. Gr. t. 480 ; Haw. 
Syn. 250, Rev. 166; Buch 197. no. 371; DC. PI. Gr. t. 88; 
DC. iii. 447 ; WB. i. 205. — Herb. ann. Mad., PS., ND., GD. and 
SD., reg. 1, cc. Sunny slopes and waste ground near the sea ; 
in Mad. chiefly on P ta de S. Louren 9 o, at the Gorgulho and 
Praia formosa, &c. ; in P t0 S t0 general, and in ND. most abimd. 
Apr., June. — Whole pi. quite smooth, mostly more or less red- 
dish purple, frosted with small crowded oblong equal not watery 
papilla. St. 3-12 in. long spreading on all sides close to the 
ground, then ascending, sometimes suberect and bushy, round 
and slender, much branched, hard and woody. L. flaccid 3-6 
lines long, 1 broad, subcylindric or subclavate flattened or slightly 
channeled above, round beneath, fasciculate on the young shoots. 
Fl. small 3-5 lines in diam. w. or pale flesh-col. with the eye 
yellowish, nearly or quite sessile, opening only in the hottest 
morning sunshine, closing about noon. Sep. all like the 1. in 
shape and the 2 or 3 outer in size also, the 3 or 2 inner or shorter 
with broad membranous margins and 1 or 2 of them some- 
times reduced to red-purple ovate-lanceolate fleshy-membra- 
nous pointed scales ; the outer 2 or 3 longer subciliate and gib- 
bous behind at the base. Pet. 2 or 3 lines long, | or f millim. 
broad, very narrow linear-ligulate rounded at the tip, w., pale 
p. or flesh-col., greenish-y. towards the base. Stam. 10-15 in 
a single row, half the length of pet. ; anthers chrome-y. Styles 
5 straight erect closely connivent or spirally twisted ; stigmas 
chrome-y. ; ov. gr. Caps, small erect hard 5-angular. 
This is the chief in quantity if not in quality of the three 
Soda-yielding pi. of these islands, viz. M. nodiflorum, M. cry- 
stallinum , and Suceda or Salsola fruticosa L. It is chiefly pro- 
duced or cult, for the purpose of burning into Soda in the N. 
or Little Flat Deserta. 
2. M. crystallinum L. Barrillid. Ice-plant. 
Coarsely and strongly watery-papulose ; st. divaricately 
branched mostly prostrate ; 1. alternate flat undulate rhomboid 
or oval-wedgeshaped ; the lower stalked, upper sessile ; fl. axil- 
lary or terminal sessile ; sep. 5 unequal flat ovate, pet. very 
narrow-linear longer than the sep. — Dill. Ilort. Elth. ii. 232. 
t. 180. f. 221 ; Brot. ii. 331 ; Fl. Gr. t. 481 ; DC. PI. Gr. t. 128 ; 
Haw. Syn. 243; DC. iii. 448 (a and 0, M. crystallinum and 
M. glaciale Haw. Suppl. 91, 92, Rev. 157) ; WB. i. 205. — Herb, 
ann. Mad. reg. 1, rr ; PS. reg. 1, c ; ND. and SD. ccc. l n „ de S. 
Louren 90 about the Piedade only in Mad. Along the road to 
