M E S 



M E S 



slender: the leaves in pairs, at an inch or an 

 inch and half distance, an inch in length, 

 thickish, on an old plant narrower and shorter, 

 on a young one longer and thicker, not quite 

 round, but 1 " obtusely triangular, with the angles, 

 however, so blunt that they are rather cylradric 

 than three-sided ; are overspread with glittering 

 spangles of a greenish yellow colour : the stems 

 and lower branches are bay-coloured and 

 smooth; the upper ones reddish brown, rough 

 to the touch, with many whitish dots, which 

 were originally spangles: the peduncles and 

 calyxes shine with spangles like those of the 

 leaves, but thicker: the Bowers are terminating, 

 on peduncles from an inch to an inch and 

 "half in length ; they are large, concave, with 

 the margin" bent back, composed of numerous 

 petals, cohering to the base, gradually smaller, 

 and filamentose in the middle, of a dirty red 

 colour on the outside, but within very dark 

 orange-coloured, deepest at the edge; the nar- 

 row middle petals next the white filaments be- 

 ing very dark, by which it is easily distinguished 

 from the other sorts. It is a native of the 

 Cape, flowering from May to August. 

 It varies with paler smaller flowers. 

 The thirtieth has the stem woody, from a 

 foot to two feet in height, covered with an ash- 

 coloured bark, deformed by age with irregular 

 wide fissures, knotted and jointed, divided and 

 subdivided into several opposite branches : the 

 leaves so bluntly triangular as to appear to be 

 round, an inch and half or two inches in 

 length, the size of a swan's quill, with dense 

 bundles of other leaves coming out from the 

 axils, glaucous, smooth, appearing pellucid 

 when held up to the light, purple at the end, as 

 are also the branches : the branches and leaves 

 are at short intervals; and, affecting an upright 

 position, this plant has the appearance of a 

 shrub, though probably it would be weighed 

 down by the number and size of the leaves and 

 branches : the flowers are in a sort of umbel at 

 the ends of the branches, from the axils of the 

 leaves, small, pale yellow, and sweet smelling. 

 It is a native of the Cape, flowering in May and 

 June. 



It varies with shorter and more manifestly 

 three-sided leaves and fewer flowers. 



The thirty-first species has the stems half a 

 yard high and more, woody, with frequent 

 joints, ash-coloured, with fissures at bottom, 

 bay-coloured and more smooth above : the 

 lower and middle branches are twisted, the up- 

 per ones are straight and little divided : the pe- 

 duncles an inch and half or two inches long : 

 the flowers large, pale yellow, or sulphur-colour- 

 ed on both sides, sometimes slightly tinged with 



red on the outside : the petals long, narrow, 

 cuspid, with smaller ones interspersed among 

 the others : they remain expanded only a few 

 hours, and contract about noon : but open 

 several times, and have a succession during the 

 summer months. According to Mr. Hawoith, 

 it is a strong upright shrub, the flowers being 

 produced only by old plants, and by them but 

 sparingly. It is a native of the Cape, flower- 

 ing in June and July. 



The thirty-second species has the stems 

 longer, less pressed to the ground than the va- 

 riety below : all the leaves at the joints are very 

 long, more thick and glaucous : the peduncles 

 not naked, but surrounded by a pair of short 

 leaves : the flower of a deeper yellow colour, 

 with a red line along the back : the stamens 

 numerous, neither collected nor much scattered: 

 yellowish, and whitish anthers : the styles very 

 many, (according to Linnaeus, ten) reddish, 

 slender, villose : the capsules round, depressed, 

 fifteen- or sixteen-celled, with a crown on the 

 top of the same number of rays : the leaves 

 which spring from the axils of the larger ones 

 are less frequent and less bent in ; but these 

 younger leaves have the angles more acute, and 

 are more glaucous than the longer leaves at the 

 joints, which the nearer they are to the root, 

 the paler and more flaccid they seem to be ; the 

 rest are more rigid and succulent, not wrinkled, 

 and scarcely dotted, but the lower ones have 

 transverse lines on their flat sides, are somewhat 

 wrinkled, and much dotted underneath : the 

 flowers are flat, and continue some days expand- 

 ing about noon. 



There is a variety which throws out many 

 procumbent branches, tough at the lower part, 

 but not properly woody, herbaceous at the up- 

 per part, about three inches in length, round or 

 slightly angular, jointed at short intervals, with 

 bluntly triangular leaves, from which other 

 leaves spring in bundles, of the same form, but 

 shorter ; the root-leaves and those at the base 

 of the branches remarkably long : the leaves 

 bend like the horns of kine, whence the trivial 

 name ; they are somewhat glaucous, become 

 soft and flaccid, and then appear marked with 

 many lines and dots : the peduncles six inches 

 in length, or nearly so, and naked : the flowers 

 the sizeand almost the form of those of Dandelion, 

 but paler, or sulphur-coloured, composed of nu- 

 merous petals, of which the inner ones are shorter, 

 with a red purple streak running along the mid- 

 dle on the outside, the same tinge appearing at 

 the extremity and base of the petals. It is a 

 native of the Cape. 



The thirty-third is stemless whilst young, but 

 acquires by age considerable trailing woody 



