M E S 



M E S 



There are several varieties. 



In the first, the leaves are wide and com- 

 pre.-sed ahout the edge : the flowers somewhat 

 large, with hlunt petals, scattered and not nu- 

 merous, with scarcely any peduncle : one plant 

 has several heads, from each of which are pro- 

 duced clusters of leaves in pairs, disposed like 

 those of the Tongue Aloes, hut with the edges 

 not horizontal but oblique: there are generally 

 three or four pairs of these leaves ; they are 

 broad and thick, flat above, pillowed below, 

 bright green, smooth and shining, sometimes 

 blunt, sometime:) a little pointed, generally in 

 the shape of a shoemaker's knife: the younger 

 leaves in this and the other varieties are folded 

 together and obliquely inserted into each other: 

 the flowers come out successively in August and 

 September from the axils, beginning with the 

 lowest, they are subscssile, large, yellow, some- 

 what paler than in the following variety, shining 

 iii the sun : petals somewhat blunter, entire, or 

 sometimes cut here and there. 



The Broad Tongue-leaved variety has thick 

 ]■ aves, flat above, convex beneath, with the 

 margins thicker and less upright than in the 

 preceding, smooth and shining, pale green, es- 

 pecially toward the base, when held up to the 

 light appearing to be composed of innumerable 

 vesicles: three or four pairs of these leaves lie 

 in the same inclined plane; these are sometimes 

 flatter and blunt at the end, sometimes very 

 much cut at the edge : from the lower pair first, 

 and then from the next, a short peduncle arises, 

 obtusely triquetrous, bearing a large flower of a 

 shining golden colour, with many stamens, hav- 

 ing oblong golden anthers. 



The Narrow Tongue-leaved variety is very 

 like the preceding, but the petals have a slight 

 tinge of red on the outside : the older leaves are 

 more reflex ; the younger ones, which are closer 

 and more luxuriant, are somewhat twisted in and 

 excavated, and are of a fuller green colour: the 

 fruit is smaller and softer, not elevated, but 

 rather depressed, roundish, and commonlv 

 streaked with eleven angles; it is generally 

 eleven-celled ; the cells being the same in nuin- 

 l>i i as there are horns of the style, which are 

 depressed at the bottom of the flower under the 

 stamens, and are curled and wrinkled: the pc- 

 tals in two or three rows, almost of the same 

 length, of a shining yellow colour. It flowers 

 in August and September. 



There is another variety, which is distinguish- 

 ed from the others by the leaves being longer and 

 more erect : the peduncles of the flowers longer: 

 the capsules less globular, commonly divided 

 into nine cells : the calyeine segments lour, three 

 longer and narrower, one shorter and broader, 



with a membranaceous margin : the flowers have 

 a double or triple row of petals, shining in 

 the sun with the splendour of gold : the sta- 

 mens numerous, with oblong saffron-coloured 

 anthers. 



The thirty-eighth species grows up into a stem 

 an inch and morein thickness, and two or three 

 feet in height, standing upright with little or 

 no assistance, with a crown of clustered leaves 

 along span in length at the top, and branches 

 a foot long and more at the base, which hang 

 down with the weight of a multitude of leaves: 

 very old plants grow a yard in height, with long 

 incurved tw isted branches : the stems and low cr 

 branches are of a dusky yellowish colour, but 

 the upper flowering branches green ; on the low- 

 er part of these the leaves are alternate, but on 

 the upper part, where the flowers come out, 

 clustered and somewhat shorter, in pairs at 

 short intervals, triquetrous, with equal angles, 

 slightly grooved on the sides, especially on the 

 inner side ; hut the alternate ones have the inner 

 side rather flat : they are not dotted, but are of a 

 deep green, almost glaucous, like the leaves of 

 Pinks, at the angles towards the base tinged 

 slightly with purple : the peduncles from the 

 axils of the upper leaves a span in length, thick, 

 at first hanging down, but afterwards erect : the 

 flowers large, expanding when the sun shines, 

 straw-coloured above, tinged with red under- 

 neath, composed of numerous slender cuspid 

 petals, gradually smaller, and the inner ones lila- 

 mentose. The flowers are open from eight or 

 nine in the morning to four or five in the after- 

 noon. It is a native of the Cape, flowering 

 from May to August. 



The thirty-ninth has the stem short, thickish : 

 the branches unequal, spreading irregularly on 

 the ground, covered with a smooth bark of a 

 dusky yellowish colour, with other smaller sim- 

 ple ones springing from them, which are also 

 irregular and twisted : the leaves are pointed, 

 slightly excavated within in the middle, the outer 

 part produced and swelling, of a yellowish green 

 colour, with frequent minute dots regularly in 

 lines: the flowers are somewhat small, but 

 white: the petals narrow, peduncles short, so 

 that the flowers frequently scarcely emerge from 

 the bundles of haves : they arc liiaimntosc, and 

 where white shine with a silvery brightness in 

 the sun; but in the middle, next the stamens, 

 arc slightly tinged with yellow, and shine less : 

 they are without scent, open two or three times, 

 and in the day time only. It is a native of the 

 Cape, flowering from June to October. 



The fortieth has the stem shrubby, but procum- 

 bent ; oven when tied up its irregular twisted 

 branches will hang down: thev are round tosvards 



