The Botanical Magazine/Volume 2/67

by William Curtis

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[67] Mesembryanthemum pinnatifidum. Jagged-leaved Fig-Marigold.

Class and Order.

Icosandria Pentagynia.

Generic Character.

Cal. 5-fidus. Petala numerosa linearia. Caps. carnosa infera polysperma.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

MESEMBRYANTHEMUM pinnatifidum foliis pinnatifidis. Linn. Syst. Vegetab. p. 470. Suppl. p. 260.

N^o67

This species of Mesembryanthemum, so different in the shape of its foliage from all the others hitherto introduced into this country, is first described in the Supplementum Plantarum of the younger Linnæus, from which we learn that it grew in the Upsal Garden, into which it was most probably introduced by professor Thunberg, as on his authority it is mentioned as a native of the Cape of Good Hope.

Mr. Zier, Apothecary, of Castle-Street, was so obliging as to present me this summer with the seeds of this curious plant, I sowed them in a pot of earth, plunged in a tan pit, whose heat was nearly exhausted; they quickly vegetated, and though the summer was far advanced, they proceeded rapidly into flower, and bid fair to produce ripe seeds, as the Capsules have long since been formed.

The whole plant is sprinkled over with glittering particles like the ice plant, to which it bears some affinity in its duration, being an annual and requiring the same treatment.

The blossoms are small and yellow, and if the weather be fine, open about two or three o'clock in the afternoon, the stalks are of a bright red colour, and the foliage yellowish green.