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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
1. Mesembryanthemum, Linn
1. Mesembryanthemum, Linn.
More or less succulent herbs or undershrubs. Leaves usually opposite, thick and fleshy, trigonous or terete or flat. Flowers conspicuous, terminating the branches or axillary. Calyx-tube adnate with the ovary; lobes 5. Petals numerous, linear, in one or several rows. Stamens numerous, in many rows Ovary inferior, page 191with 5 or more cells, rarely 4-celled; styles as many as the cells, free or connate at the base, stigmatic on the inner side; ovules very numerous. Capsule enclosed in the persistent calyx, depressed at the apex and loculicidally dehiscent, the valves opening in a star-like manner. Seeds numerous, minute; testa crustaceous.
An enormous South African genus, containing fully 300 species; rare elsewhere, although a few species are widely scattered along the shores of many parts of the world.
| Leaves less than 1 in. long. Flowers ¾–1 in. diam.; peduncles usually short | 1. M. australe. |
| Leaves more than l in. long. Flowers 1½ in. diam., on long peduncles | 2. M. æquilaterale. |
| 1. | M. australe, Sol. ex Forst. Prodr. n. 523.—Stems 1–4 ft. long, prostrate and rooting at the nodes, woody, terete. Leaves opposite or in opposite fascicles, connate at the base, ½–1¼ in. long, linear or linear-oblong, triquetrous, flat above, convex and keeled beneath, acute or obtuse, thick and fleshy, often glaucous. Flowers ¾–1 in. diam. white or pink; peduncles usually shorter than the leaves, but sometimes nearly twice their length. Calyx-tube fleshy, obconic; lobes 5, 2 of them much longer than the others. Petals very numerous, spreading. Styles 5–8. Capsule 5–8-celled.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 522; Raoul, Choix, 48; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 76; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 83; Benth. Fl. Austral. in. 324; Kirk, Students' Fl. 184.
Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Common everywhere on the coasts. Horokaka. October–March. Also abundant in Australia and Tasmania, Norfolk Island, and Lord Howe Island. |
| 2. | M. æquilaterale, Haw. Misc. Nat. 77.—Stems robust, woody at the base, prostrate or ascending, sometimes several feet in length; flowering branches short, suberect. Leaves opposite, stem-clasping, 1–3 in. long, very fleshy, linear, acutely triquetrous, smooth, equal-sided or laterally compressed. Flowers 1½ in. diam.; peduncles 1–3 in. long, thickened upwards, winged. Calyx-tube turbinate, ½ in. long or more; lobes unequal, the 2 larger ones often as long as the tube. Petals spreading. Styles 6–10. Capsule 6–10-celled.—Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 324; Kirk, Students' Fl 184.
North Island: Coast near Napier; Castle Point, Kirk! December–February. A common plant in Australia and Tasmania, also found in California and Chili. |