September, 1914 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
03 
where from December to April it flames fierily. Under favorable 
circumstances the plant has been known to develop heads two feet 
in diameter. Its glorious scarlet-bracted flowers are an important 
element in the decoration of churches at Christmas and Easter, for 
which reason it has been called Christmas flower and Easter flower, 
a translation of the appellation by which it goes in Mexico — la dor 
de Pascua. The 
non-botanical 
may be re¬ 
minded that the 
flaming invo¬ 
lucre that has 
gained the plant 
its popularity, is 
no part of the 
blossom, but 
simply a whorl 
of colored 
leaves. The 
flowers occupy a 
small space at 
the point of 
union of these 
leaves. They 
are brilliant, too, 
in red and gold, 
but more cu¬ 
rious than beau¬ 
tiful and rela¬ 
tively quite in- 
long a m o n g 
California gardens before making acquaintance with those curious 
floral groundlings, the mesembryanthemums. They are creeping, 
fleshy-leaved plants, whose daisy-like blossoms, with very narrow 
petals yellow, white, and of various shades of red, open only in 
the sun—the reason of the sesquipedalian name, which means 
“flower of the midday.” They are particularly liked as coverings 
to sunny banks and slopes, 
which they overspread with 
beauty at practically no ex¬ 
pense of care after being 
rooted, as their succulent 
leaves and stems make them 
famous drought resisters. 
Everyone who has visited 
Southern California in April 
and May has been struck 
with the prodigal color of one 
small-flowered sort, which 
forms carpets of solid pink in 
gardens, along streets, and 
particularly on the hillsides 
and earth cliffs of many of 
the beach resorts. There are 
in the world some three hun¬ 
dred species of mesembryan- 
themum, mostly native to the 
rocky sands and arid plains of South Africa, but a few are in¬ 
digenous to the Mediterranean basin and to Austrakasua. Two 
or three species grow wild in California, and have been a puzzle 
to botanists, who have never satisfactorily accounted for their 
presence there. One of these (M. crystallinum ), which is found 
on Southern California sea beaches and strangely enough at one 
or two places on the Mojave Desert, is also native to Greece and 
the Canary Islands. It is remarkable for its glittering, often 
reddish foliage, which seems frosted with particles of ice, and 
on this account it has long been one of the world’s green-house 
curiosities under the name of ice-plant. In the Canary Islands 
the burning of the ice-plant and exportation of the ashes for use 
in Spanish glass-making was once, and perhaps still is, a consider¬ 
able industry. 
Many species of 
mesembryanthe- 
m u m, indeed, 
are noted for 
grotesqueries of 
form, like the 
allied tribe of 
the cacti, and 
also like the lat¬ 
ter bear a fruit 
resembling the 
fig that is in 
some cases pala¬ 
table. Its fruit- 
capsules are a 
very interesting 
part of the 
plant. They are 
tightly closed in 
dry weather, but 
possess to a re¬ 
markable degree 
the property of 
absorbing mois¬ 
ture from the 
air, and after a 
rain they open out their carpellary valves, which radiate from 
the center in star fashion and permit the seeds to escape. When 
the weather clears they close, to gape again with the return of 
another shower. The curious will find entertainment in soaking 
mature, dry capsules in a basin of water, and watching the starry 
tops open out, as do the so-called resurrection plants of the 
curio-shops. 
A denizen of many Califor¬ 
nia gardens that is sure to at¬ 
tract an Easterner’s attention, 
and indeed is far from famil¬ 
iar to all Californians, is a 
creeping turf-plant whose bo¬ 
tanical name, Lippia repens, 
is easy enough to pronounce 
to be popularized. Evergreen 
of leaf and taking kindly to 
almost any sort of soil, it 
spreads by rooting at the 
joints until it forms solid 
mats of verdure, even chok¬ 
ing out many sorts of weeds 
that flourish in grass plots. 
These are as pleasant to walk 
on and as yielding to the tread 
as Turkish carpet, and the 
little plant is as cheerful under the pressure of human feet as 
blue grass, or a New Mexican penitente flat on a church door¬ 
step begging to be trodden on for his sins’ sake. Furthermore, it 
is tolerant of neglect, and will survive a whole dry season without 
watering or mowing, though for the best effect it should have both 
about once a month during the summer. Lippia has therefore 
taken an assured place in California as a substitute for lawn 
conspicuous. 
One is not 
Two specimens of mesembryanthemum, or South African fig marigold, carpet this roadside bank. The trees outside 
the hedge are the Australian Crevillea robusla 
For covering walls, the creeping fig is extensively used. It is an industrious little 
vine with leathery leaves 
