65 



NOTES ON MESEMBRYANTHEMUM 



FEOM THE National Heebaeium. 



By James Beittex, F.L.S. 



The following notes relate almost exclusively to the species o£ 

 Masemhri/anthemum described — -many of them for the first time — in 

 Alton's Hortus Kewensis (1789). In the second edition (1811) 

 Haworth's arrangement {Miscellanea Naturalia^ pp. 15-lOB, 1803) 

 is followed. Of this and of Haworth himself more will be said later : 

 in the course of these notes I have had occasion to refer to his publi- 

 cations on the genus — Observations on JSLesemhryantliemum (1794) ; 

 Miscellanea Natiiralia (1803) ; Synopsis Plantarum Succulent arum 

 (1812) ; Supplementum (1819). I have also referred to Sonder's 

 monograph of the South African species in Flora Capensis, ii. 387- 

 460 (1862), and to the Mesemhrianfhemen unci Portulacaceen (1908) 

 of Mr. Alwin Berger, late curator of the famous garden at La Mortola, 

 mider whose care a large number of species was there in cultivation. 



I. Axx Lee's Deawings. 



From time to time attention has been called in these pages to the 

 collection of unpublished drawings in the Department of Botany. 

 Apart from their interest as specimei^s of plant-drawing, they have a 

 scientific value, as they are in many cases named by Dryander and 

 referred to in the Solander MSS. on which Alton's ILortus Keioensis 

 was largely based, thus becoming more or less typical for that work, 

 especially in cases where the actual sj)ecimens described have not been 

 preserved. 



Among these one of the most interesting is a folio volume cata- 

 logued as " Coloured Drawings of Mesembryanthema by Miss Lee." 

 This contains 19 drawings, of which 16, on vellum, are signed '' A. 

 Lee, 1776 " — one is 1778. Of the remaining three (on paper) one 

 (no. 13) is signed " S. Taylor, 1777," who is evidentl}^ also responsible 

 for no. 10 and probably for no. 6 — we have in the Department a 

 large number of drawings by Simon Taylor, of whom some account 

 will be found in the Dictionary of National Bioyraphy (Iv. 464). 

 All are named, mostly by Dryander, and are interesting and in some 

 instances important in relation to Alton's Kortus Keicensis, as, in 

 the absence of specimens, they are the onh" authentic material for the 

 species. 



Ann Lee was the daughter of James Lee (1715-95) the celebrated 

 nurser^^man of Hammei-smith, whose garden was the resort of the 

 botanists of his time, and who introduced numerous plants to cultiva- 

 tion, including Fuchsia coccinea. Among the genera to which he 

 paid special attention was Mesemhryanthemum, which was fashionable 

 in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and which he was " re- 

 ported to know much better than any one." Haworth, who tells us 

 this (Obs. Mesembryanth. p. 22), disparages this estimate, but it 

 must be remembered that, according to his own account, he was 

 treated rudely by Lee on the occasion of his visits to the nursery, 



JOUENAL OF BOTAXT. YoL. OO. [MaECH, 1917.] T 



