M E S 



MES 



its growth it is very liable to be taken for the 

 twenty-seventh sort, and that it frequently emits 



roots froii) the joints of the stems, and thereby 

 becomes creeping. It is a native of the Cape, 

 flowering from June to September. 



The twenty-third species is an upright plant, 

 woody, tirm, growing to a larger size than most 

 of the species: the flowering-stem is rigid and 

 somewhat gray : the branches axillary, opposite, 

 from erect spreading, crossing each other in 

 pairs, and beset thickly with voung leaves on 

 their first outset, whitish or glaucous, but final- 

 ly brownish, gradually shorter upwards, form- 

 ing a beautiful pyramidal glaucous plant, well 

 covered with fine leave- ; these when full 

 grown are from two to three inches long, 

 slightly curved upwards or falcate, very glau- 

 cous, crossing each other in pairs ; very much 

 compressed at the sides, having pellucid dots 

 scattered over them, flatfish above and mucro- 

 nate : the flowers terminating in a sort of 

 corvmb, large, showy, purple. It is a native 

 of the Cape. 



The twenty-fourth has the stems a palm or 

 long span in length, creeping, when young 

 herbaceous and soft, three-sided, green, fre- 

 quently purple next the sun ; when old, more 

 round, still not woody but soft, tough, and 

 fungous, covered with a cinereous bark : the 

 leaves are usually in the same plane, or not de- 

 cussated, divaricating, or not approximating like 

 manv of the other species, thick, succulent, 

 bluntly three-sided, smooth and somew hat 

 shining, green : the flowers on short peduncles, 

 sometimes naked, but more frequently with a 

 pair of leaves on them; solitary, small, violet 

 purple : the petals not very numerous : the 

 stamens many, short, not very much scattered, 

 but not collected into a head or upright. It 

 creeps so much that it : ? eIdom flowers, and 

 when it does the flowers do not continue long. 

 It is a native of the Cape. 



The twenty-fifth species is a very low, bushy, 

 divaricating almost decumbent shrub, rarelv 

 more than six or eight inches high : the branches 

 are opposite, slightly angular, axillary, divari- 

 cating, and densely crowded : the leaves very 

 minute and much crowded, glaucous, having 

 smooth pellucid dots, attenuated at the base, 

 verv gibbous on the keel, sharply incurved or fal- 

 cate, near a quarter of an inch long, and ending 

 in an acute, white, just perceptible, bristly point 

 in the direction of the leaves : the flowers are 

 purple, large, solitary, opening in the morning, 

 on short terminating peduncles : the leaves arc 

 sometimes so much incurved as to form half 

 & circle, and are remarkably small. It is a na- 

 tive of the Cape. 



The twenty-sixth is a small, very bushy, 

 rather glaucous shrub, from six inches to .1 foot 

 or more in height : the branches almost upright, 

 or often diffuse and panicled, round whilst 



young, -lightly angular when old, covered with 

 a brown bark, for the most part opposite and 

 crowded : the leaves are also opposite and 

 crowded, rather glaucous, having pellucid - 

 usually distinct, but sometimes confluent ; they 

 are subtrigonous with blunt angles, awl-shaped, 

 attenuated at the base, slightly incurved, some- 

 times almost sabre-shaped, from three quarters 

 of an inch toan inch and half in length: the flow - 

 er- are very numerous, reddish purple, like thn-e 

 of the thirteenth sort hut more handsome, expand- 

 ing in the fore part of the day in such profusion 

 as often to cover the surface of the plant: petals 

 linear, numerous. It is a native of the Cain, 

 and flowers from June to August. 



It is verv variable, assuming different appear- 

 ances, according to its treatment, and the dif- 

 ferent stages of itS growth : its very numerous 

 beautiful purple flowers, covering the whole 

 plant, and produced every season, make it a 

 valuable species. 



The twenty-seventh species grows up into a 

 long, slender, and not much branched shrub, 

 from a foot to two feet high and more : the 

 leaves are slender, oblong, bluntly three-sided, 

 green, not glaucous, rugged to the sight, not the 

 touch, with frequent green tubercle-, which 

 when held to the light appear whitish and pel- 

 lucid: similar tubercles are observed in the 

 lower part of the fruit: the flowers terminating, 

 middle-sized, golden within, red on the outside. 

 It is a native of the Cape, flowering from May 

 to September. 



The twenty-eighth is an elegant species, three 

 quarters of a yard in height, with woody stems, 

 not so thick as the little finger, and not much 

 branched, procumbent, covered with an ash- 

 coloured bark : the flowers are on the upper 

 branches, solitary, terminating, large, of an 

 elegant yellow colour, composed of two or 

 three row s of petals, which are blunt, entire, and 

 sometimes jagged, the outer longer and flat, the 

 inner suddenly shorter, more erect, concave, 

 and at their base a circle of saffron-coloured 

 anthers on very short filaments ; the bottom of 

 the flower being void, smooth, and even, hol- 

 lowed out like a dish : they open several times 

 from eight m the morning to three or four in 

 the afternoon if the sun shines, and have a 

 little smell. It is a native of the Cape, flower- 

 ing in June. 



The twenty-ninth species has stems from a 

 foot to two feet in height, procumbent, woodv, 

 and much branched : the branches are round,. 



