MESEMBRYANTHEMUM. 



199 



MESPILUS. 



Villarsia, wliicli are natives of 

 Australia and the Cape, are very j 

 handsome, with very showy yellow- 1 

 flowers. They are all marsh plants, ; 

 and should be sown or planted in the I 

 mud or soft ground left by the | 

 water. Some of the kinds are only i 

 half-hardy. 



Mexzie'sia. — Ericacece. — Little 

 heath-like plants, formerly included 

 in the genus Erica, natives of Eu- 

 rope and North America. The 

 commonest kind {M. poUfblia), St. 

 Dabeoc's Heath, is found wild in 

 Ireland. The flowers are larger 

 and more globular than those of the 

 common Heaths, and much hand- 

 somer. They are quite hardy, and 

 only require to be grown in sandy 

 peat or heath-mould. 



MESEMBRTA'^'THEMUM. — Ficoi- 



dece. — The name of Mesembryanthe- 

 mum signifies mid-day flower ; and 

 this name admirably expresses the 

 habit of the plants, their flowers 

 only expanding in the brightest 

 sunshine. The English name of 

 Fig Marigold alludes to the fruit, 

 which is shaped like a fig, and which 

 is eaten by the Hottentots ; and to 

 the flower, which resembles that of 

 a Marigold in shape, and sometimes 

 in colour. There are two kinds of 

 Mesembryanthemum which are 

 called the Ice-plant, M. glaciale and 

 M. crystdllinum, the former being 

 an annual, and the latter a biennial 

 — and they take their English name 

 from the little globular protube- 

 rances, or rather blisters (which 

 botanists call papulae), filled with a 

 soft watery matter, which glisten 

 over the whole of the plants, and 

 make them look as though they 

 were covered with ice. The flowers 

 of these plants are white ; but there 

 are other ]\Iesembryanthemums with 

 pink or purple flowers, and those of 

 the commonest and hardiest kind, 

 M. pomeridianum, are of a brilliant 



yellow. This kind is an annual, 

 the seeds of which should be sown 

 on a hotbed, and the young plants 

 transferred to the open ground in 

 May ; and they should be always 

 planted out in the open border, as 

 they never flower weU in a pot. The 

 perennial kinds may be grown either 

 in pots, or in the open ground ; but 

 in the latter case they should either 

 be taken up or carefully protected 

 during winter, as they are killed by 

 the slightest frost. They should be 

 grown in sandy or gravelly soil, 

 which, for the larger-growing spe- 

 cies, may be mixed with a little 

 loam : but even of these, the poorer 

 and more sandy the soil, the more 

 brilliant will be the colour of the 

 flowers, though the leaves and stems 

 will become small and weak. All 

 the species should be kept quite 

 dry when in a dormant state, and 

 abundantly supplied with water 

 when they are about to flower ; and 

 all the perennial kinds are propa- 

 gated by cuttings which should be 

 kept dry for several days after they 

 are put into the ground till they 

 begin to wither, when they should 

 be supplied with a little water, and 

 they will directly begin to throw 

 out roots. The pots in which these 

 plants are grown should be well 

 drained with cinders ; and when 

 planted out in the open air, it should 

 be on a dry, open, sunny bank. 



Me'spilus. — Rosacece. — This is 

 one of those genera which have been 

 dismantled and almost annihilated, 

 by modern botanists. A few years 

 ago, almost all the flowering shrubs 

 and low trees included in the order 

 Kosacese, were referred to Mespilus. 

 All the Crata?guseSj a great number 

 of the Pyruses, the Aronias, Ame- 

 lanchier, Eriobotrya, and many 

 other allied genera, were all con- 

 sidered to belong to Mespilus. 

 Now, however, the genus Mespilus 



