MESEMBRYANTHEMUM. 279 



roots, and, if necessary, remove them into larger pots ; but 

 they should be always kept in as small pots as possible, 

 particularly those of the more succulent kind. 



They should generally be housed in September, and 

 placed abroad in May, in a sheltered, warm, sunny situ- 

 ation. In very wet weather, the most succulent kinds 

 should be screened from it. 



This is a handsome and admired genus, and compre- 

 hends a great variety. They are chiefly natives of the 

 Cape. Few green-houses, however small, are without the 

 Ice-plant ; which is also, from its glittering surface, called 

 the Diamond-plant, Diamond-ficoides, and Spangled-beau : 



" Geranium boasts 



Her crimson honours, and the spangled beau, 



Ficoides, glitters bright the winter long. 



All plants of every leaf, that can endure 



The winter's frown, if screened from his shrewd bite, 



Live there and prosper." 



COWPEB. 



Thunberg informs us, that the bushmen in Caffraria, 

 and other parts of the Cape, often build their temporary 

 huts with bushes of Mesembryanthemum, in which they 

 live as long as their food lasts *. They have a species 

 called the M. Edule, of which they eat the fruits, which 

 they call Hottentot's Figs. When ripe and peeled, he says, 

 it was tolerably well-tasted. The colours of its blossoms are 

 red, pale carnation, yellow, or white (. This author men- 

 tions another kind, of which he say s : 



" Kon was a name given by the Hottentots to a shrub 

 that grew here (M. Emarcidum), and was famous all over 

 the country. The Hottentots come far and near to fetch 

 this shrub with the root, leaves and all, which they beat to- 

 gether, and afterwards twist them up like pig-tail tobacco ; 



* Thunberg's Travels, Vol. II. p. 174. t Ibid. Vol. J. p. 163. 



