[Illustration:  67]

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 LINNAEUS, 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.

[68]

Sempervivum arachnoideum.  Cobweb Houseleek.

Class and Order.

Dodecandria Dodecagynia.

Generic Character.

Cal. 12-partitus. Petala 12. Caps. 12. polyspermae.

Specific Character.

SEMPERVIVUM arachnoideum foliis pilis intertextis, propaginibus globosis. Linn.  Syst.  Vegetab. p. 456.

SEDUM montanum tomentosum. Bauh.  Pin. 284.

[Illustration:  68]

By the old Botanists, this plant was considered as a Sedum; and to this day it is generally known in the gardens by the name of the Cobweb Sedum, though its habit or general appearance, independent of its fructification, loudly proclaims it a Houseleek.

In this species the tops of the leaves are woolly; as they expand they carry this woolly substance with them, which being thus extended, assumes the appearance of a cobweb, whence the name of the plant.

Like most of the Houseleeks it is best kept in a pot, or it will grow well and appear to great advantage on a wall or piece of rock-work; the more it is exposed to the sun, the more colour will enliven its stalks and foliage, and the more brilliant will be its flowers; the latter make their appearance in July.

It is propagated by offsets which it sends forth in abundance.

It is no uncommon practice to treat this beautiful species of Houseleek, as a native of a warm climate; under such an idea we have seen it nursed up in stoves, while the plant spontaneously braves the cold of the Switzerland Alps.

[69]

Rosa muscosa.  Moss Rose.