FIG MARIGOLD FAMILY 



(Fic&idea) 



Smooth, succulent plants with opposite leaves, perennial. 

 Petals and stamens very numerous inserted on the calyx. 



ICE PLANT (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, L.). Flowers 

 about an inch in diameter, with a great many rose or white, 

 linear petals; the stems and large wavy leaves thickly covered 

 with a translucent, glistening incrustation resembling frost or 

 ice, whence the common name. The plants grow in extensive, 

 flat masses over the seaside mesas and in the pockets of cliffs 

 of the Southern California Coast. Often the whole plant as r 

 sumes a ruddy hue in droughty weather, and makes a notice- 

 able color note in the landscape. It flowers in the spring. 



The brown, unattractive seed vessels which abound upon 

 old plants hold an unexpected pleasure for people with a taste 

 for simple joys. If you break off a sprig of them, and lay it in 

 a dish of water, the dry capsules will slowly open out into so 

 many charming 5-pointed stars, discharging tiny black seeds. 

 After drying out the process may be repeated with the same 

 seed vessels for an indefinite number of times. In the lan- 

 guage of science they are hygroscopic. 

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