I- 



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w. r 



r 



SPECIES OF MESEMBRVANTHEMUM. 



129 



Fontein, in Frasevburg Division, on Aiig\ 24, 1811. Of this no s[)ecimenj 

 but only seeds (no. 53) were collected, and it is possible that from them this 

 plant may have been raised. 



N 



M, 



J but there is a coloured drawhig 

 icli appears to me to be either a 



colour variety of M. croceion or a hybrid derived from it. 



Hi 



Tall 



er 



(ti 



m 



the 



type) J with more distant and more simple branches^ more remote leaves, and 

 fewer, broader^ and darker purple })etals. Probiibly a distinct Sjiecies, — 

 M* hispidiim var. plat if pet alum ^ Haw. Rev. p. 186 (1821) : DC. Prodr, vol. iii. 



p. 442. 



South Africa, Division ? BurchelL 



The above is a translation of Hawortli^s description^ and nothing more is 

 knovvn of this plant* No specimen of it exists at Kew, and tlie varietal name 

 is not entered by Burchell in his MSS., but it is just possible that it may 

 have been the plant entered in his catalogue under no. 2128-12 as being 

 M, hispidum. Of tliis number, seeds only were collected and no specimen 

 preserved. Burchell's descriptive note of. the plant, made on the spot where 

 it was found, is as follows ;— ^^ Stems erect, branching, hispid. I 

 vermiculatc, terete, naked, obtuse, shining. Flowers small, of a beautiful 

 purple ; petals spathulate, obtuse. Styles (really stigmas) 5, caudate. 

 Capsule 5-celled." If this was the plant Haworth described, as is not 

 improbable, it was found by Burcbell during a journey made between the 



weaves 



M 



to Mav 1812. Accordintr to this it 



would not be likely to be the same species as M. hisjndum, Linn., wliich was 

 founded upon the plant figured in Dillenius, Hort. Elth. p. 289, figs. 277- 



278, 



U 



is scarcely likely to have been obtained from the interior region at tliat date 

 (1732) ; also Burchell notes that tlie flowers of liis plant are small, whicli is 

 not the case with tlie Dillenian plant. There are^ however, specimens 

 collected by Burchell (no. G40G) on the eastern side of the Gouritz River, 



M 



^ 



of Dillenius, that there can be no doubt they belong to typical M. hispidum^ 

 Linn.j and the region where Burchell collected them is one from which the 

 Diilenian plant might well have been obtained. Of no. 6406 Burchell 

 collected 7 specimens, of which 5 are at Kew and the other two are ^u'obably 

 in the Asa Gray Herbarium at Harvard University. The specimens are in 

 full flower and no seeds of it were collected, so that, as these two nos. 2128-12 

 and 6406 are all that have the name AL hispidum assigned to them in 



Barcheirs MSS 



(seed 130) was t 



tends to confirm tlie supposition that no, 2128-12 

 rietv platupetalum, which has been omitted from the 



works oF Sonder and Berger. 



