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SPECIES OF MESEMBRYANTHEMUM. 



57 



e Youn^' Aloes. They scour eA^ery nook 



through GrahanistoAvii and Port Elizabeth Districts, and what strikes one 

 more than anything ol.so is the rapid change which is being brought about 

 in the regetation of the country tlirough the introduction of the Otftricli. 

 These birds destroy the majority of the succulent phmts, especially Mesem- 

 bryantheniunis, and clear out all th 



and corner of the veldtj and I think it extremely likely tliat numy succulents 

 which grow in these parts will never be seen again. It is therefore Inghly 

 desirable that we should make an endeavour to place inany more of our 



interesting South African plants in a spot or collection where they will be 

 safe from the depredations of the 0.'<trich and Man/' 



This being the case, it seemed desirable to discover and place upon record 

 the localities (wliich hitherto have remained unkiiown) of the species of 

 Mesembrijantliemum discovered by Burcliell wlien travelling in South Africa 

 ovei" a century ago, so that if tliey still exist they may be souglit for and 

 preserved, and also made known to botanists and liorticulturists ; for at the 

 present time they are mostly unknown plants, since most of those that were 

 in cultivation have died out, and the descriptions of them in modern works 

 arc either imperfect or altogether wrong, from being based upon wrongly 

 named plants. Three of them (d7. arhor\forme^ J/, coriariinii^ and j\L campestre) 

 were named by Burchell, wlio preserved dried specimens of them, of ^^hich 

 the types are at Kew. Tlie remainder were described by Haworth from 

 plants i-aised in England by Burcholl from seeds he collected in South 

 Africa and ol which he 2)reserved no specimens. Living plants of these 

 were given by Burchell to Hawortli, who named and described (hem, and a 

 set ot them was given by Haworth to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew^ from 

 wliicli coloured drawings were made and are now preserved in the Kew 



Herbarium. These drawings (as I have already stated) represent all that is 

 definitely known of some of the species, for the figures and ilescri[)tions of 

 Salm-T3yck (copied without examination into their authenticity by modern 

 authors) are somt^times wrong, and have no connection wliatcver with the 



Burcliellian plant, I have therefore carefully gone through all the 

 manuscript lists and notes made by Burchell^ which are now at Kew, and 

 extracted from them all the information I could find relating to these 

 species; and as Haworth's works are very rare and difficult to procure, I 



here give translations of the original descriptions or of all the characters 

 contained in them, in combination with any notes of" Burchell'Sj and details 

 obtained from an examination of the drawings and types at Kew^ so as to 

 make our present knowledge of these species as perfect as possible. 



Altliough tlie genus Mesembi'fjanthenmm is one of the most extraordinary 

 among flowering plants, yet to the botanist and cultivator alike its chief 

 claim in the scheme of Nature is usually associated with tlie beauty of its 

 flowers, its other peculiarities being generally unknown or ignored. To tlie 

 student, however, it offers many points of great interest. For instance^ to 



