Sesuviuirm 
FIC0IDE2E. 
251 
It is inamly a tropical and subtropical family, of the Old World. Our Pacific Coast has only 
two indigenous representatives, both insignificant, and as many naturalized ones, which appear as 
if wild on the sea-shore. 
* Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary : petals and stamens very numerous. 
1. Mesembryanthemum. Capsule 5-valved or more. Very fleshy. 
* * . Ovary free : petals none : Stamens few or many. 
2. Sesuvium. Calyx-lobes 5, petaloid. Stamens 5 to 60. Capsule cireumscissile. Succulent. 
3. Mollugo. Sepals 5. Stamens 3 or 5. „ Capsule 3-valved. Not succulent. 
1. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, Linn. Ice-Plant. Fig-Marygold. 
Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary;-, the lobes usually 5, unequal, foliaceous. Petals 
very numerous, linear. Stamens innumerable, with slender filaments, inserted with 
the petals on the tube of the calyx. Styles 4 to 20, usually 5. Capsule 4-20- 
celled, dehiscing in a star-like manner at the depressed summit. Seeds minute, 
very numerous.' — Fleshy herbs or shrubs, rarely annual; leaves mostl^opnos^^ 
without stipules ; flowers mostly showy, terminal and in the forks of the branches. 
A genus of about 300 species, principally S. African, but a few found in the Mediterranean 
region, Western S. America, and Australia. The Californian species are probably introduced. 
I. M. sequilaterale, Haworth. Perennial, with stout prostrate or ascending 
stems and short ascending flowering branches : leaves very fleshy, opposite and 
clasping, linear, acutely triangular, 1 to 3 inches long, smooth • flowera aoTitaig— 
