Mesembryanthemum

“ By their form and colour, this insect may pass unobserved by those birds, which otherwise would soon extirpate a species so little able to elude its pursuers, and this juicy little Mesembryanthemum may generally escape the notice of cattle and wild animals. ”

“ The empalement, seed-bud, chives and pointals.
2. The same cut perpendicularly, to show the insertion of the chives and pointal Our figure represents a perfectly new and nondescript, and at the same time very ornamental species of Mesembryanthemum: each flower possesses the valuable property of lasting about ten days in beauty, and never closes after being once expanded: a circumstance of exceeding rare occurrence in this very extensive genus; no fewer than 214 distinct species of which we have now a knowledge of [C] . ”

“ Not a very large family, mostly natives of warm regions. Ours are branching herbs, lying mostly on the ground; leaves mostly opposite or in whorls; flowers perfect; sepals four or five; petals numerous, small or none; stamens few or many, usually on the calyx; ovary sometimes superior; fruit a capsule. In this country most of this family are dull little plants, with inconspicuous flowers.
There are many kinds of Mesembryanthemum, mostly African; ours are smooth, very succulent perennials; without stipules; leaves opposite; calyx-lobes unequal and leaf-like ”

“ These two species (Mesembryanthemum and Crassicornis) are quite beautiful enough to give a beginner amusement: but there are two others which are not uncommon, and of such exceeding loveliness, that it is worth while to take a little trouble to get them. The one is Dianthus, which I have already mentioned; the other Bellis, the sea-daisy, of which there is an excellent description and plates in Mr. Gosse’s “Rambles in Devon,” pp. 24 to 32.
It is common at Ilfracombe, and at Torquay; and indeed everywhere where there are cracks and small holes in limestone or slate rock. ”

“ The same organ which remains closed so long as it is juicy or moist, splits and flies asunder when dry, thus scattering the seeds in weather most favourable for their success. By an extraordinary provision of Nature, however, in some annual species of Mesembryanthemum, natives of sandy deserts in Africa, the seed-vessel opens only in rainy weather; otherwise the seeds might, in that country, lie long exposed before they met with sufficient moisture to vegetate.
1. Capsula, a Capsule, is a dry seed-vessel of a woody, coriaceous or membranous texture, generally splitting into several valves ”

“ Amongst the other plants occurring generally in the Convolvulus soldanella zone of Southern Chile, species of Salicornia and Samolus are to be observed in wet places. On the beaches near Valparaiso and in the vicinity of Talcahuano there thrives a species of Franseria, a Composite plant possessing prickly fruits well suited for conveyance in bird’s plumage, but not adapted, as shown in Note 71, for dispersal by currents. Mesembryanthemum is a typical beach-plant at Coquimbo, and an intruder from the adjoining hill-slopes at Valparaiso. ”

“ Stigma sessile, sunk in a slight pit and level with the concave top of the ovary, entire, inconspicuous.
It may not be out of place to point out that dried specimens of Mesembryanthemum chrysoleucum, Schlechter are so similar to Roodia digitifolia in general appearance, that the plant might easily be mistaken for a species of Roodia. It differs, however, by being destitute of bracts on its peduncle; by the leaves, peduncle, and calyx being papillate; by the calyx being lobed down to the top of the ovary, the stamens erect; and by having 7 stigmas and a 7-celled capsule.—N. E. Brown. ”

“ Mesembryanthemum æquilaterale is neither contained in the herbarium, nor mentioned by the collector. I find, however, in one of the letters from Swan River, published by Mr. Cross, a plant noticed as a pot-herb, that, from the account of the writer, is probably this plant, which, next to Anthistiria australis, is perhaps the most widely diffused species in the Flora of New Holland.
The third species is Pteris esculenta, the only fern found by Mr. Fraser, and which is both general and abundant beyond the tropic in New Holland and in Van Diemen's Land. ”

“ Calyx.—With campanulate tube and usually five unequal lobes. Petals.—Linear; numerous. Stamens.—Numerous. Ovary.—Two- to many-celled. Stigmas five. Hab.—The Coast and adjacent islands from Santa Barbara southward; also in the Mojave Desert.
The ice-plant spreads its broad, green leaves over the ground, often making large rugs, which, when reddened by the approach of drouth and glistening with small crystals, produce a charming effect. The flat leaves of this plant are quite unexpectedly different from those of our other species of Mesembryanthemum, which are usually cylindrical or triangular. ”

“ Three-edged, Mesembryanthemum deltoides:⁠f. 100. Four-edged:
Tab. 8. f. 101. Alienated, Mimosa verticillata, p. 172. [1] ⁠f. 102. Hooded, Sarracenia, p. 173.⁠f. 103. Furnished with an appendage, Dionæa muscipula:⁠f. 104. ”

“ The houses have all dark roofs, with glass only in front; yet the greater part of their inmates looked very healthy, particularly the greenhouse plants; but these had the advantage of being exposed to the weather during the summer months. Various pits were also in this establishment for the growth and protection of the half-hardy species. The Succulentæ are extensively cultivated; there are nearly one hundred and forty species of Mesembryanthemums, and about one hundred different kinds of Aloes, besides a pretty good collection of the Cacteæ. ”

“ From the peripheral protoxylem groups small strands of xylem are given off, which follow a steeply ascending course through the cortex to the single-veined leaves. The leaf-traces, in several species at least, are characterised by a mesarch structure (fig. 125, F, G) , the spiral protoxylem elements occupying an approximately central position. The mesophyll of the leaves varies in regard to the extent of differentiation into a palisade and spongy parenchyma; in all cases there is a single vascular bundle occasionally accompanied by a secretory duct. ”

“ The mesophyll consists of palisade cells having the appearance of typical chlorophyll-tissue. The heterosporous strobili attributed to this species bore microsporangia on the upper and megasporangia on the lower sporophylls; the megaspores, of which a considerable number occur in each megasporangium, are identical in size with those of another Culm form, Lepidodendron rhodumnense. Some of these have retained traces of prothallus tissue, and in one spore Renault figures what he regards as an archegonium: the drawing is by no means convincing. ”

“ In Sphagnum, Andreaea and some genera of the Bryales the protonema or some of its branches have the form of flat plates or masses of cells. The formation of the moss-plant on the protonema is always from a single cell and is similar in all mosses. The first three walls in this cell intersect one another, and define the three-sided pyramidal apical cell by means of which the shoot continues to grow. In Fissidens and a few other mosses the apical cell is two-sided. The leaves formed by the successive segments gradually attain their normal size and structure. ”

“ Not only does a moss-plant never arise directly from the spore, but in all cases of vegetative reproduction, apart from the separation of branches by decay of older regions of the plant, a protonema is found. Usually the protonema is filamentous and ceases to be evident after the plants have developed. ”

“ The mesophyll is composed of short palisade cells on either side without a middle tissue except for a layer of polygonal cells contain- ing clustered crystals in the middle of the mesophyll in B. odorata.
Internal secretory cells are not found in the leaf. Oxalate of lime occurs in the form of numerous clustered crystals near the veins. In B. odorata there is a layer of polygonal cells with clustered cry- stals in the middle of the mesophyll (fig. 51) . In the axis clustered crystals occur in the cortical parenchyma and pith. Veins are provided with sheaths of green thick-walled cells. ”

“ The plant-body (gametophyte) in the Musci consists of a stem bearing thin leaves, usually spirally disposed, rarely in two rows. The internal differentiation of the stem is generally well marked, and in some cases is comparable in complexity with the structure of the higher plants. A protonema arises from the spore, having the form of a branched filamentous, or more rarely a thalloid structure. Reproduction as in the group Bryophyta.
Mosses like Liverworts have an extremely wide distribution, and occur in various habitats. ”

“ In mosses (fig. 12) a filamentous growth, the protonema, is first formed, and the leafy plants arise upon this. In liverworts this preliminary phase of the sexual generation is as a rule ill-marked or absent, and the plant may be said to develop directly from the spore.
It will be evident that the two generations exhibit a regular succession or alternation in the life-history of all Bryophytes. The gametophyte is developed from the spore and bears the sexual organs; the sporogonium is developed from the fertilized egg and produces spores. ”

“ The aerial branches of Tmesipteris possess a central cylinder of separate xylem groups in which the protoxylem occupies an internal position (fig. 120, C and E, px) enclosing an axial parenchymatous region. The cells of a few layers of the inner cortex immediately outside the endodermis are rendered conspicuous by a dark brown deposit. The cortex as a whole is composed of uniform parenchymatous tissue. In the lower part of the aerial shoots and in the rhizome the xylem forms a solid strand without protoxylem elements and conforms more clearly to that of Psilotum. ”

“ The filament soon broadens into a ribbon-shaped thallus, several cells thick, which is closely applied to the rock. Erect branches may arise from the protonema, and gemmae may be developed on it. The stem of the plant, which arises in the usual way, has no conducting strand and the leaves may or may not have midribs. The leaf grows by a dome-shaped instead of by the usual two-sided initial cell. The antheridia are long-stalked. The upper portion of the archegonial wall is carried up as a calyptra on the sporogonium, which, as in Sphagnum, has no seta and is raised on a pseudopodium. ”

“ The sexual generation, the gametophyte. The protonema in the Liverworts is very insignificant, and not always very sharply demarcated from the more highly developed parts of the nutritive system. In the true Mosses the protonema is well-developed, and consists of a branched, alga-like filament of cells, the dividing cell-walls being always placed obliquely. In the parts exposed to the light it is green, but colourless or brownish in those parts which are underground (Fig. 186) . The protonema is considered to be a lower form of the stem, and grows in the same manner by means of an apical cell ”

“ They are minute plants of a green colour, consisting of cells generally independent of each other, but sometimes forming brittle threads or minute fronds, and are reproduced by spores generated by the conjugation of two distinct individuals. The process of conjugation in Desmids and Diatoms consists in the union of the endochrome of two individuals, each of which in these families is composed of a single cell. This ultimately forms a rounded body or resting spore, which afterwards germinates, the resulting plant not however acquiring the normal form until the third generation. ”

“ Vegetative propagation is widely spread in the mosses, and, as mentioned above, a protonema is always formed in the development of the new plant. The social growth of the plants characteristic of many mosses is a result of the formation of numerous plants on the original protonema and on developments from the rhizoids. Besides this, gemmae may be formed on the protonema, on the leaves or at the apex, and some mosses have specialized shoots for their better protection or distribution. ”

“ The branched filamentous rhizoids which spring from the lower region of the stem also correspond to protonemal branches. The structure of both stem and leaf reaches a high grade of organization in some mosses. Not only are thick-walled sclerenchymatous cells developed to give rigidity to the periphery of the stem and the midrib of the leaf, but in many cases a special water-conducting tissue, consisting of elongated cells, the end walls of which are thin and oblique, forms a definite central strand in the stem. ”

“ In the Vertebrata the whole of the mesoderm has at first the mesenchyme form. Afterwards, when the body-cavity split appears, the bulk of it assumes a kind of modified epithelial condition, which later on yields, by a process of outflow very similar in its character to what has been supposed to occur in the Echinoderm blastula, a considerable mesenchyme of the reticulate character. Mesenchyme is the tissue which in Vertebrate embryology has frequently been called embryonic connective tissue. This name is no doubt due to the fact that it was supposed to consist of isolated stellate cells. ”

“ In plants with a normal cambium the segments cut off from the initial layer fit on to the elements of the xylem or phloem to which they are to form additions, but in Lepidodendron it seems to be a general rule to find each of the most external lignified elements abutting on a group of two or three much smaller cells. It is difficult to believe that the meristem shown in fig. ”

“ A hermaphrodite floret magnified.
2.The chives, pointal and seed-bud magnified.
3.The pointal and seed-bud of a female floret magnified.
4. The receptacle Xeranthemum bracteatum has the appearance of proving as hardy an annual as a China Aster or French Marygold; and if so, will prove a considerable acquisition to our open borders; as it ripens its seeds well, and they vegetate readily.
In being annual, it recedes in its nature from all the species of the genus we are acquainted with, except X. annuum of Linnæus; which, however, we think, with Jussieu, of a perfectly distinct genus ”