OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
99 
CHAPTER XVII. 
FICOIDE^. 
Essential Character. —Sepals definite, combined at their bases. I gynous. Ovarium many-celled, inferior or superior. .Stigmas dis- 
Petals indefinite, rarely wanting. Stamens numerous, distinct, peri- I tinct. Capsule dehiscing in a stellate manner at apex.— (G. Don.) 
GENUS I. 
MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, Lin. THE FIG MARIGOLD. 
Lin. Syst. ICOSANDRIA TETRA-POLYGYNIA. 
Generic Character. _ Calyx of 5, rarely of 2 —8 sepals. Petals ] along with the petals. Capsule adnate to the calyx, from four to many- 
indefinite, linear. Stamens indefinite, inserted in the top of the calyx J celled. Cells many-seeded. (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. —The name of Mesembryantliemum is derived from mesembria , mid-day, and anthemum , a 
flower ; and this name admirably expresses the habit of the plants. Their flowers seem to live only in the sun. 
When the sun withdraws its beams, they close their petals, and only expand them in the brilliant light of a 
summer’s day. “ I scarcely know a more interesting sight,” says Dr. Lindley, in his admirable Ladies Botany, 
“ than in a summer’s day, after a storm, to watch a bush of this genus, which has thrown its weak trailing arms 
over a piece of rock, and which leans forward to the south, as if to catch the earliest influence of the beams it loves 
so well. While the sky is darkened by clouds, all its blossoms are shut up so closely, that one w T ould hardly 
suspect the bush of being more than a tuft of leafy branches, with some withered or unexpanded blossoms scattered 
over them. But the moment that the bright rays of the sun begin to play upon the flowers, the scene changes 
visibly beneath the eye ; the petals slowly part, and unfold their shining surfaces, of almost metallic brilliancy, 
to the sunbeams, and in a few minutes become so many living stars, often of the most gorgeous tints, and so 
entirely hide the leaves, that scarcely a trace of them is visible, while the whole bush has burst into a blaze of 
glittering splendour. In this case, the phenomenon depends on a specific irritability of the petals, the cause of 
which is one of those inscrutable mysteries that the limited faculties of man are incapable of penetrating ; but in 
the fruit, there is an interesting phenomenon of another kind, the cause of which is more easily explained. The 
seed-vessels of the Fig Marigold, produced in the sandy deserts of Southern Africa, fall off when ripe, and are 
driven about by the wind. If they were to open during the wet season, or in wet places, the seeds would fall out 
and perish, for it is only in a dry soil that they are capable of vegetating. Nature, therefore, gives this plant the 
power, by virtue of its hygrometrical quality, of keeping the seed-vessel fast shut up while exposed to damp ; and 
it is only when it finds itself in a dry station fit for the dissemination of the seeds, that the valves contract and 
open sufficiently to allow the latter to escape.”—( Ladies’ Botany , vol. ii. p. 64.) The fruit of the Mesembryan- 
themum is shaped like a fig, and is eaten by the Hottentots ; hence the name of Fig Marigold. The leaves are 
extremely succulent, and those of some of the species are eaten. The Mesembryanthemums are nearly all natives 
of the hot sandy plains near the Cape of Good Hope. 
1.—MESEMBRYANTHEMUM POMERIDIANUM, Lin. THE LARGE YELLOW-FLOWERED 
FIG MARIGOLD. 
Engravings. —Bot. Mag. t. 540 ; and our fig. 5, in Plate 18. 1 nearly distinct. Steins, peduncles, and calyxes, hairy. Petals shorter 
Specific Character.— Leaves broad-lanceolate, flat, smooth, ciliated, | than the calyx. Stigmas 12 — (G. Don.) 
Description, &c.— One of the most splendid of this beautiful tribe of flowers. The broad, thick, fleshy 
o 2 
