as an alien, and in those parts of the United Kingdom 
with a similar climate the species is hardy and is seen to 
best advantage when planted along the top of a low wall 
and allowed to hang down. It thrives best if planted 
in poor sandy soil, and may be propagated with ease 
by cuttings taken at any season. The nearest ally of 
M. edule is another Cape species, MV. acinaciforme, Linn., 
figured at t. 5539 of this work. The two ‘are readily 
distinguished, when alive, by their differently coloured 
flowers and their differently shaped leaves. As seen in 
dried specimens, however, they are not always easily dis- 
criminated, and when Linnaeus enumerated both in 1753 
he regarded them as varieties of one species. Ten years 
later Linnaeus recognised the species now described as 
distinct, and this judgment has never since been chal- 
lenged. M. edule and M. acinaciforme, together with the 
somewhat similar M. aequilaterale which, however, is 
confined to the Pacific coasts of America and to Australia, 
but does not occur in §. Africa, were grouped by 
Haworth in the section Acinaciformia, which, as Marloth 
points out, differs from all other sections of the genus in 
bearing fleshy fruits—in the S. African species known as 
Zuurvygen or Hottentot figs—with numerous small seeds 
embedded in a subacid edible pulp; in other sections 
the fruits are dry capsules. The cultural history of 
M. edule began long before it received that name. In 
1732 it was, as a figure by Dillenius shows, in the garden 
of Sherard at Eltham. Moreover it was, as Dillenius 
knew, in the Breynian collection ; Breyn tells us it was 
in his garden in Holland in 1668. 
Description.—Herb, succulent, much branched, prostrate or pendulous, 
2-4 ft. long, with rather stout angular branches. Leaves opposite, sessile, 
oblong, rather blunt, more or less 3-gonous, somewhat incurved, thickly fleshy, 
green, 17-3 in. long, over} in. wide. Flowers terminal, solitary, about 8 in. 
across, yellow when they open, changing later to flesh-coloured. Calyx with a 
turbinate tube, 3-1 in. long; lobes ovate or oblong, rather blunt, unequal, 
#-l} in. long. Petals Spreading, very many, linear-oblong. Stamens very 
many, short; anthers linear-oblong, yellow. Stigmas subsessile, numerous, 
reflexed. Fruit turbinate large, edible, 
Tax. 8783.—Fig. 1, stamen seen from in front ; 2, the same, seen from behind ; 
3, section of calyx-tube, showing stamens and stigmas :—all enlarged. 
