Tab. 5539. 



MESEMBRYANTHEMUM acinaciforme. 



Scimitar-leaved Fig -Marigold. 



N"at. Ord. Ficoideje. — Icosandbia Polygynia. 

 Gen. Char. {Vide supra, Tab. 2144.) 



§ Acinaciformia (Salm-Dyck). Caules fruticosi, validi, angulares, decumbentes. 

 Folia connata, triquetra, acinaciformia, crassa, lsevia. Flore s speciosi, soli- 

 tarii, rubicundi aut flavi. Calyx 5-partitus, lobis insequalibus. Stigmata 

 6-10. Fructus carnosus. 



Mesembryanthemum acinaciforme; foliis compresso-triquetris sursum incras- 

 satis acutis vel acutiusculis, carina marginibusque integris v. undulato-serru- 

 latis, pedunculis bibracteatis petalis purpureis, stigmatibus ad 14. 



Mesembryanthemum acinaciforme. Linn. Sp. PL 695. Bill. Hort. Elth. f. 

 270-271. Andr. Hep. t. 508. Be Cand. PL Grasses, t. 89. Salm-Byck, 

 Monog. § 19. t. 6. 



M. lsevigatum. Haw. Syn. 233. 



M. rubrocinctum. E. et Z., Bot. Reg. 1732. 



M. subalatum. Haw. Syn. 235. 



Dr. Lindley, speaking of Mesembryanthemum rubrocinctum 

 (Bot. Reg. 1732), which is a mere variety of this species, re- 

 marks, that it may perhaps be considered the finest of the ex- 

 tensive genus to which it belongs. Few things can be more 

 effective than a well-disposed patch of this plant. It is an old 

 inhabitant of gardens in the south-west of England, and well 

 known in many out-of-the-way places, but by no means so 

 generally as it deserves. It is with a view to draw attention to 

 it and to its congeners, which have been too much neglected of 

 late years, that we have had figured this species from a plant 

 grown in the Scilly Islands, obligingly sent to us by A. Smith, 

 Esq., M.P. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope,— the 

 head-quarters of the Fig Marigolds,— growing, according to Dr. 



OCTOBEK 1st, 1865. 



