MESEMBRYANTHEMUM. FIG-MARIGOLD.
Mesembryanthemum æquilaterale, Haworth. Fig-marigold Family.
Succulent plants. Stems.—Elongating; forming large mats. Leaves.—Opposite; sessile; fleshy; three-angled; two inches or more long; oblong. Flowers.—Terminal; solitary; fifteen lines to two inches across; pink. Calyx.—With top-shaped tube and five-lobed border. Petals.—Very numerous; linear. Stamens.—Innumerable. Ovary.—Four- to twenty-celled. Stigmas six to ten. Hab.—The Coast, from Point Reyes southward.
The fig-marigold is a very common plant upon our seashore. It seems to flourish best toward the south, where it covers large tracts of sand with its succulent foliage, making mats of pleasant verdure in otherwise sandy wastes. Its stems often trail many yards down the cliffs, making beautiful natural draperies, decked with myriads of the pink blossoms. Because it is capable of withstanding the drouth in the most remarkable manner, it has been planted to produce verdure where irrigation is impossible. The very numerous slender petals give the flower the appearance at first sight of a Composita. The fruit is pulpy and full of very small seeds, like the fig, and has a suggestion of the flavor of the Isabella grape.
[FALSE MALLOW—Malvastrum Thurberi.]
![[FALSE MALLOW—Malvastrum Thurberi.]](#3624944100741987669_f078.png.id-2105218526623740252.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Many species of Mesembryanthemum are cultivated in our gardens, mostly as border-plants. The genus is a large one, most of the species being native of Southern Africa, and it is supposed that the three species now common upon our Coast were introduced in the remote past without the agency of man.
Gilia androsacea, Steud. Phlox or Polemonium Family.
Stems.—Three to twelve inches high; erect; spreading. Leaves.—Opposite; sessile; palmately five- to seven-parted; seemingly whorled. Flowers.—In terminal clusters. Corolla.—Salver-shaped; rose-pink, lilac, or white, with a yellow or dark throat; its tube filiform, about an inch long; limb eight to ten lines across. Filaments and style slender; exserted. (See Gilia.) Hab.—Throughout the western part of the State; into the Sierra foothills.
The delicate flowers of this little plant may be found nestling amid the grasses of dry hill-slopes in late spring, often making charming bits of color. It is usually rather a low plant, but in specially favorable situations it rises to a foot in height. Its fragile flowers vary from pure white to lilac and a lovely rose-pink, and look like small phloxes.
Mimulus Douglasii, Gray. Figwort Family.
Flowering at half an inch high; later becoming a span high. Leaves.—Ovate or oblong; three- to five-nerved at base; narrowed into a short petiole. Flowers.—Rich maroon, with deeper color in the throat and some yellow below. Calyx.—Five-toothed. Corolla.—An inch to eighteen lines long; with dilated throat. Lower lip much shorter than the ample, erect, upper one; sometimes almost wanting. (See Mimulus.) Hab.—Throughout California.
This little Mimulus is quite common upon gravelly or stony hills. Its pert little maroon flowers, with their very long tubes and erect lobes, so ridiculously out of proportion to the size of the tiny plant, give it the look of some very important small personage.
![[Gilia Androsacea.]](#3624944100741987669_f079.png.id-2090281327604266886.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}