308 
37. MESEMBRIANTHEttACE-E. 
the W. of the town in PS. and on the Ilheo Debaixo at the 
landing-place ; most abundant in N. and S. D. but not observed 
in GD. Dry waste ground and barren places near the sea. 
Mav-July. — Root small simple. St. smooth round thickish 
strong tough and somewhat woody lying mostly quite flat and 
spreading from 6-18 in. all round. Whole pi. covered with 
large conspicuous prominent unequal ovoidal hyaline papilla 
like drops of congealed dew or ice glittering in the sun, gene- 
rally tinged more or less with bright red or purple. L. rather 
large flat waved or plicate succulent but not thick, flaccid and 
soon withering ; the lower st. or root-1, large, sometimes 3-5 in. 
long, cordate-quadrangular orrhomboidal attenuated downwards 
into a broad petiole, the upper sessile about an in. long Q-- 2 
in.) oblong oval or spathulate with an abrupt point ; often more 
or less furry above at the edges. FI. nearly or quite sessile 
numerous towards the ends of the branches pale p. with the 
eye greenish, 9-12 lines in diam. or 2 or 3 times as large as 
in M. nodifiorum L. and closing much later i. e. towards sunset 
or at 4 or 5 p.m. Sep. 5 unequal, 3 larger fleshy ovate or oval 
abruptly pointed short flattened and leaf-like ; the 2 inner or 
smaller scale-like, sometimes horned at the back, broadly mar- 
gined, bright crimson or red. Pet. twice as long as sep. | in. 
long, \ mill, broad, pink towards the tips, w. downwards. Stani. 
numerous in many rows, scarcely half the length of pet. ; anth. 
w. or ven r pale, not y. as in M. nodifiorum. Styles 5 sim- 
ple straight erect closely connivent or twisted ; stigmas pale 
simple. Fr. large and handsome about the size of hazel-nuts 
erect 5-angular hard dark purplish-red or crimson and abound- 
ing in juice, saturating and staining blood-red or crimson the 
feet of persons walking over large beds of the pi. which present 
at such times a striking and peculiar appearance. Might not this 
dye, like that latent in the cognate Cochineal-producing Cactus- 
tribe, be turned to similar account ? 
The two sp. formed by Haworth out of this, are certainly 
mere transitory forms or stages of the wild pi. In PS. the pre- 
sent sp. is preferred for making Soda to M. nodijlorum L., and 
it is there called par excellence “ Barrilha.” It is the common 
well-known 11 Ice-plant ” of English gardens. The quantity of 
water it contains is quite astonishing. A person walking inad- 
vertently over only a few pi. of it in the hottest weather and 
most parched up-ground, will soon find his boots or shoes com- 
pletely saturated. 
