The Fig- Marigold. 295 



for living fences. In English greenhouses it is by no 

 means uncommon, and often produces plenty of young 

 fruit, which usually fails, however, to ripen. There is 

 no mistaking the plant after once seeing it, the portions 

 which answer to stem and branches consisting of oval 

 and flattened lumps, several inches in length, sprouting 

 fantastically hither and thither; clusters of prickles dis- 

 persed in plenty upon the green skin, and yellow flowers 

 upon the upper edges. The ovary, below the flower, has 

 similar clusters of prickles, which, being rubbed off when 

 the fruit is collected, leave the scars above-mentioned. 

 The plant grows as fairly erect as the odd configuration 

 will permit, attaining the stature, when favourably circum- 

 stanced, of nine or ten feet. 



THE FIG- MARIGOLD ( Mesembryanthemum edule). 



SCARCELY inferior in point of quaintness to the Cactaceae 

 are the curious succulent garden and greenhouse plants, 

 chiefly from the Cape of Good Hope, which, because 

 of their usually brilliant many-rayed flowers, and the 

 similarity, in some few, of the fruit, are called by the com- 

 posite name of Fig-marigolds. Two or three of them have 

 become naturalized in the Scilly Islands, the M. edule in 

 particular. At Tresco the curving shore above high- 

 water mark is in many places marked by broad patches 

 of this beautiful plant. From May to August it is decked 



