I have named this beautiful species after Mr. Brown, who 



has taken a great deal of trouble in the d< termination of 

 the species of this troublesome genus. Mr. Watson, who 

 is charged with the cultivation of the succulent plants at 

 Kew, informs me that the flowers expand only in bright 

 sunlight, and that the change of colour shown in the 

 specimen figured is not accidental, but that the young 

 flowers are invariably of a brilliant lustrous purple, and 

 that they fade into ochreous or reddish yellow. 



M. Brownii has been long grown at Kew under the name 

 of micans; it flowers in July, and remains long in blossom. 

 How far it may prove distinct specifically from M. poly- 

 anthon, I am not prepared to say ; it differs from Haworth's 

 and other descriptions of that plant in the total absence of 

 scabridity, and from Salm Dyck's figure of it in the erect 

 more shrubby habit and smaller flowers. 



Dkscr. A small erect much-branched shrub, about a foot 

 high; branches slender, quite glabrous, not articulate at the 

 nodes, covered with brown smooth shining bark. Leaves 

 one-half to two-thirds of an inch long, in scattered pairs, 

 or crowded on short lateral branches, terete, acute, fleshy, 

 inserted by a broad base, pale glaucous green, not papillose, 

 but obscurely pustulate with translucent slight prominences, 

 giving an uneven appearance, more pronounced as the leaf 

 dries ; youngest leaves obscurely triquetrous or semi-terete. 

 Flowers one to one and a quarter inches in diameter, 

 solitary, or in threes at the ends of the branches, where 

 each pedicel has a pair of leaves like the cauline, from deep 

 ochreous red to bright red-purple ; pedicels one-half to 

 one inch, slender, hardly swollen below the calyx. Oalyx- 

 tube short, turbinate; lobes longer than the tube, two 

 larger broader upwards, each produced into two rounded 

 lobes with a short dorsal space between them ; three smaller 

 lobes ovate, obtuse, mucronate. Petals in several series, 

 spreading from the base, straight, gradually dilated up- 

 wards, very narrowly spathulate, tip obtuse retuse or 

 notched, often obliquely. Stamens shorter than the calyx, 

 densely crowded. Stigmas five, subulate, from a very 

 broad tumid base. — J. D. E. 



Fig. 1, Leaf; 2, calyx and stamens ; 3, petals ; 4 and 5, stamens; 6, ovary with 

 the sepals removed, and stigmas :— all enlarged. 



