ICOSANDRIA.' , ( i8 ) 
SUN-BRIGHT MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, 
I F Singularity or Elegance alone can recommend a Plant to Notice, none can dis- 
pute the double Claim of this ; for it has both. The untutor’d African 
admires it in his Defart : and the more we have Knowledge, the greater we 
muft own its Claim to that Diftindfion. Its general Form, the Manner of its 
Growth, the Peculiarity of its Leaves ; and above all, its glowing Flowers com- 
mand our Eftimation. One farther Claim it has to our Regard : tho’ a Native 
of very lultry Regions, it bears the chill Air of Europe, better than moll 
Plants from the fame burning Quarter. There is never more Need of Shelter, 
than a Green-houfe will afford j and with good Management, it will live many 
Months in a common Border, 
The Stalks have little Strength or Firmnelsj they naturally throw themfelves 
every Way upon the Ground, and the Plant, forms a Kind of circular Tuft 
wherein the green and flelhy Leaves make a plealing Variety with the Crimfoii 
Stalks, before the Flowers difclofe their fuperior Beauty. The Leaves are thick' 
and juicy, almoft rounded in the Circumference, and lharp at the Point. They 
are green all the Year j and as the ftraggling Branches hang from the rough 
Rocks, or cover the burnt Sands, they cannot but command that univerfal At- 
tention which is paid them. With us a fmall Pot of Earth feeds the Plant, and 
they fall over its Edges very beautifully. 
This Flower leads us a Step more forward, in the fexual Syftem, than we have 
hitherto advanced : thofe we have nam’d already, fhewed the Character of their 
feveral Clafles, folely in the Number of their Filaments, the Clafs being named 
thence 5 and this Diftin£l:ion holds as far as twelve. Thofe which have twelve 
Filaments, being Dodecandria. The laft Plant was of the Decandrous Tribe, 
and Nature offers not one Plant, whofe Filaments are eleven : at leaft, none 
fuch has yet been difcover’d. 
After twelve we do not count the Number : but are guided by the Arrange- 
ment of the Filaments, their Proportion, or their Place of Infertion. 
Here we enter on the Divifions form’d by the Infertion of the Filaments : this 
Plant belongs to the twelfth Clafs, the name of which is Icofandria. This 
might feem to mean, that the Flower had juft twenty Filaments, but the Ac- 
count is not the Article of Diftin£Iion: Icofandria is an adopted Term, and the 
Chara6fer of the Clafs is not compris’d in lefs than thefe three Marks : the Flower 
has a hollow Cup form’d of one Piece 5 the Petals or Segments of the Flow;er, 
are fixed to the Side of the Cup; and the Filaments, which are numerous, are 
inferted either on the Side of the Cup, or to the Flower itfelf ; not to the Re- 
ceptacle or Head of the Stalk whence the Flower rifes, for that is the Chara<^fer 
of a diftin^l: Clafs, the Polyandria of which we ftiall fpeak hereafter. 
This is one of the moft complex Diftin^fions of the Linnsean Syftem, and 
fhould be well fixed in the Memory : the prefent Flower is a yery proper Inftance, 
tho’ the great Author of the Syftem once himfelf miftook it. 
CO M- 
Mefembryanthemum foliis fubulatis ferai-teretibus glabris internodio longioribus. Lin. 
