"When these plants are removed, they should be planted either against some wall, pale, or other fence, where the flexible branches may be supported. These plants should be permitted to grow rude in the summer, otherwise there will be no flowers; but after the summer is past, the luxuriant shoots should be pruned off, and the others must be nailed to the support.
"There are two varieties of this with variegated leaves, one with white, the other with yellow stripes, but the latter is the most common: these are propagated by budding them on the plain Jasmine; they require to be planted in a warm situation, especially the white-striped, for they are much more tender than the plain, and in very severe winters their branches should be covered with mats or straw to prevent their being killed." _Miller's Gard. Dict._
~Mesembryanthemum dolabriforme. Hatchet-leav'd Fig-Marigold.~
_Cal._ 5-fidus. _Petala_ numerosa, linearia. _Caps._ carnosa infera, polysperma.
MESEMBRYANTHEMUM _dolabriforme_ acaule, foliis dolabriformibus punctatis. _Lin. Syst. Veg. p._ 470.
FICOIDES capensis humilis, foliis cornua cervi referentibus, petalis luteis noctiflora, _Bradl. suc._ 1. _p._ 11. _t._ 10. _Dillen Hort. Elth. t._ 191. _f._ 237.
Though many Latin names of plants, as _Geranium_, _Hepatica_, _Convolvulus_, &c. are more familiar to the ear, and more generally used than their English ones, yet _Mesembryanthemum_ though used by some, appears too long to be generally adopted, its English name of _Fig-marigold_ is doubtless to be preferred.
The Fig-marigolds are a very numerous tribe, chiefly inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope; no less than thirty-three species are figured in that inestimable work the _Hortus Elthamensis_ of Dillenius. As most of these plants grow readily from slips, or cuttings, and require only the shelter of a common greenhouse, and as they recommend themselves to our notice, either from the extreme singularity of their foliage, the beauty of their flowers, or the peculiarity of their expansion, so they are a favourite class of plants with many.
The present species is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and is particularly distinguished by having leaves somewhat resembling a hatchet, whence its name; it is as hardy as most, and flowers as freely, but its blossoms fully expand in the evening and night only.