﻿PLATE DXL. 

 MESEMBRYANTHEMUM HETEROPHYLLUM. 



Various-leaved Mesembryanthemum . 



CLASS XII. ORDER V. 

 1COSJNDRIJ PENTJGYNIA. Twenty Chives. Five Pointals. 

 'essential generic character. 

 Calyx 4— 5-fidus. Petala numerosa, linearis, ji Empaiement 4— 5-cleft. Petals numerous, ft, 

 basi cohaerentia. Capsula carnosa, infers, near, and united at the base. Fruit fleshy, 



polysperma. ' >' below, many-seeded. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 

 Mesbmbryanthemum octogynum, caulescens: Mesembryanthemum eight 



foliis sub-semiteretibus, elongatis, obliquis, and leaves nearly half-ro 



nitidis, basi connatis : apicibus vel adunco- 

 rostratis vel ancipitibus, integris, obtusis. 



■s r . 



the points either like a hooked bill, or t 

 edged, entire, and blunt. 

 Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 

 A flower divested of the petals cut open. 

 Seed-buds and pointals, a summit magnified. 

 A dry capsule. 



The capsule as it appears when half expanded ir 

 , The same when fully expanded. 



Op this fine Mesembryanthemum we have found no figure nor description. It is most allied to M. dtt- 

 forme, so well illustrated by Dillenius, and figured before by Plukenet ; but the figure of Miller, 

 tab. 120'. Jig. 2. quoted for the same plant as of the Species Plantarum, is certainly 



M.heterophylhmi is very distiivt from either, is a free growing species, and flowers from June to Septem- 

 ber, the biossom open early i ibut in the afternoon. It is propagated both by seeds 

 ami parting the root*. The I gbt loculaments for the seed, separated longitudinally 

 by doable eta reflected above, so that the edges come in contact together and 

 cover the seeds. Eight elastic valve* 



part containing the seeds, and to one another until mature, again enclose thee. T 



bo lies, jointed near the base, and arising from the outer edge of the partitions, are prominent upon the 

 interior of each of time ^ edges always more or less reflected to facilitate the 



entrance of moisture to the seeds, above which they continue to lie close so long as the atmosphere 

 continues dry ■ but, when it rains, or water is poured upon them, it enters by the openings between the 

 valves, and is imbibed by the receptacles of the seeds and cartilaginous partitions, which presently be- 

 come much dilated, and the diameter of the fruit is considerably increased. The upper valves also by 

 this extension are drawn outwards, and I tme time by the edges of die partitions. 



Betting ■qaia or surface, gradually rise to be perpendicular upon 



theaiargin, when the fruit somewhat resembles a little cup with a Vandyke edge ; but :: 

 duration, as the less elastic and hygrometrical exterior of the valves (for their interior parts imbibe 

 water and dilate rapidly) soon draws them backwards into the form of a star or polypetalous flower, 

 with colours as vivid as if really vegetating. The edges of the partitions now become mora << •!, 

 leaving the seeds uncovered ; and the water being led towards the centre by channels in the valves, 

 and retained by an elevated margin, the seeds are fk ^' n *7* 3 S ai " 



contracts as before, and the experiment may be rep, i it a wonderful economy ot 



Nature to produce the seeds just at the moment proper for their germination, and preventing them 

 until that time from falling on the parched sands and rocks upon which those plants vegetate ! In 

 i me p "it i • ,- moisture, and there is sei- 



... m hiuh i nt u armih tor their vegetation, an ceconomy the direct reverse takes place. The cones oi 

 ■■'•'■ • :-.■...-. ■ .!..'■■* 



... w hohasdescnbedthetru.t 



ot M P nat hdum m the M iiai.1 Journal tor 179Q, and also by Mr. Konig in the Annals of Botany . 

 1 i has been given before. Dr. Hagen, a German, wno 



j were, imagined they * cre * he *?* 

 I 1 ';" 51 * - wd l :< bribed them as a new and extraordin v . Crvptogamia. inner* n 



' -i "■•■ 



»u but ■ ti. it variety. M hispidum has the upper ra 

 ■ ■ - 

 » ril P' v: torme, 



Uur ?penmen is from the collection of A. B. Lambert, e 



