ICE-PLANT.
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, L. Fig-Marigold Family.
Procumbent, succulent plants, covered with minute, elongated, glistening papillæ. Leaves.—Flat; ovate or spatulate; undulate-margined; clasping. Flowers.—White or rose-colored; axillary; nearly sessile; rather small. 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. The leaf-stems and the calyx-tube, in particular, are beautifully jeweled with the clear, glasslike incrustation. The flesh-pink or almost white flowers resemble small sea-anemones, with their single row of tentacle-like petals and hollow tube powdered with the little white anthers.
The plant grows so abundantly in the fields of the southern seasides as to be a dreadful pest to the farmer, and it is very disagreeable to walk through, as it yields up the water of its crystals very readily, and this is said to be of an alkaline quality, which is ruinous to shoe-leather.
This ice-plant grows plentifully in the chalky regions of France, and has there been recommended for use as a food, to be prepared like spinach. It also grows in the Canary Islands.
SQUAW-GRASS. SOUR-GRASS. TURKEY-BEARD.
Xerophyllum tenax, Nutt. Lily Family.
Radical leaves.—Very numerous; two or three feet long; about two lines broad; gracefully flexile; serrulate. Scape.—Two to five feet high; with scattered leaves; bearing at top a dense raceme a foot or two long. Perianth segments.—Six; spreading rotately; four or five lines long; white. Stamens.—Six. Ovary.—Three-celled. Styles three; filiform. Hab.—Coast Ranges to British Columbia; also in the Northern Sierras.
Often upon high ridges we notice the large clumps of certain plants with long, slender, grasslike leaves, which ray out in every direction like a fountain, and resemble a small pampas-grass before it flowers. We naturally wonder what the plants are, but it may be many years before our curiosity is satisfied. Suddenly some spring we find them sending up tall blossom-shafts, crowned with great airy plumes of pure-white flowers, fully worthy of our long and patient waiting. After putting forth this supreme effort of a lifetime, and maturing its seed, the plant dies.