Ophiocaulon .] 
PASSIFLORACEJE. 
107 
in. long. Capsule oblong, fragile, an inch long. Modecca cissarapeloides, 
Planch, in HooJc. FI. Nigrit. 365. 
Seychelles, common in hill woods of Mahe and Silhouette, Dr. Per rival Wright ! 
Horne , 459 ! Sap dr unk by the negroes. Through Tropical Africa. Liane blanc. 
The Papaw, Carica Papaya, Linn, is commonly cultivated and is now sub- 
spontaneous both in Mauritius and Rodriguez. Papaye . Papayer. 
Order XLI. FICOIDEiE. 
Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx 4-5-toothed, mostly free. 
Petals as many as the sepals or absent. Stamens perigynous, 
definite or indefinite ; filaments filiform ; anthers oblong, didymous, 
slit down the side. Ovary 2- or many-celled ; ovules one or many in a 
cell ; styles filiform, as many as the cells. Fruit usually capsular, dehi- 
scing variously. Seeds with embryo curved round a central nucleus of 
albumen. — Herbs or undershrubs ; leaves very variable, often fleshy ; 
inflorescence, if compound, centrifugal. Distrib. Mainly Cape. 
Species 450. 
Dehiscence of capsule loculicidal 1. Mollugo. 
Dehiscence of capsule circumscissile 2. Sesuvium. 
1. MOLLUGO, Linn. 
Calyx-tube very short ; teeth 5, persistent, subequal, membranous at 
the edge. Petals absent. Stamens 5-10, inserted at the base of the 
calyx. Ovary free, 3-celled ; ovules many in a cell ; placentation axile ; 
stigmas minute, sessile. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. — Annual herbs, 
with whorled or opposite leaves, the flowers in lateral or terminal um- 
bels or cymes. Distrib. Spread round the world in the tropics. 
Species 12. 
1. M. Spergula, Linn. ; DC. Prod. i. 391. A diffuse much- 
branched low annual. Leaves 3-6 in a whorl, oblanceolate, entire, sub- 
sessile, acute, rather fleshy, -|-1 in. long. Flowers solitary or 2-6 in a 
whorl from the same nodes as the leaves, on spreading pedicels much 
shorter than the leaves. Sepals i in. long, oblong, imbricated. Cap- 
sule oblong, as long as the sepals. Seeds chesnut-brown, tubercled. 
Glinus Mollugo, Fenzl. 
Seychelles, in waste marshy ground at La Digue, Horne ! Spread through the 
tropics of the Old World. 
2. SESUVIUM, Linn. 
Calyx-tube obconic : teeth 5, equal, lanceolate, coloured on the inside. 
Petals absent. Stamens indefinite, inserted in the calyx-tube; fila- 
ments filiform ; anthers minute, oblong. Ovary free, 3-celled ; styles 
3, filiform, free ; ovules many in a cell. Fruit an ovoid capsule with 
circumscissile dehiscence. — Herbs or undershrubs with opposite entire 
