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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.~
_Cla.s.s and Order._
~Icosandria Polygynia.~
_Generic Character._
_Petala_ 5. _Cal._ urceolatus, 5-fidus, carnosus, collo coarctatus.
_Sem._ plurima, hispida, calycis interiori lateri affixa.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
ROSA _muscosa_ caule petiolisque aculeatis, pedunculis calycibusque pilosissimis. _Miller's Dict._
[Ill.u.s.tration: 69]
If there be any one genus of plants more universally admired than the others, it is that of the Rose--where is the Poet that has not celebrated it? where the Painter that has not made it an object of his imitative art?
In the opinion of MILLER, the Moss Rose, or Moss Province, as it is frequently called, is a perfectly distinct species; LINNaeUS considers it as a variety only of the _centifolia_: as it is found in our Nurseries in a double state only, and as we are ignorant of what country it is the produce, the decision of this matter must be left to future observation and inquiry.
Though it may not increase so fast by suckers, nor be increased so readily by layers, as the _centifolia_, there is no difficulty in propagating it either way; the latter mode is usually adopted.
[70]
~Mesembryanthemum barbatum. Bearded Fig-Marigold.~
_Cla.s.s and Order._
~Icosandria Pentagynia~.
_Generic Character._
_Cal._ 5-fidus. Petala numerosa, linearia. _Caps._ carnosa, infera, polysperma.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
MESEMBRYANTHEMUM _barbatum_, foliis subovatis papulosis distinctis, apice barbatis. _Lin. Syst. Vegetab. p. 469._
MESEMBRYANTHEMUM radiatum, ramulis prolixis rec.u.mbentibus. _Dillen.
Hort. Elth. 245. t. 190. f. 234._
[Ill.u.s.tration: 70]
The leaves of this species have small hairs, issuing like rays from their points, whence its name of _barbatum_; there are two others figured by DILLENIUS, whose leaves have a great similarity of structure, and which are considered by LINNaeUS as varieties of this species; our plant is the _Stellatum_ of MILLER's _Dict._ _ed._ 6. 4_to_.
Like most of this tribe it inhabits the Cape, flowers in July, and is readily propagated by cuttings.
[71]
~Statice sinuata. Purple-cup't Statice, or Thrift.~
_Cla.s.s and Order._
~Pentandria Pentagynia.~
_Generic Character._
_Cal._ 1-phyllus, integer, plicatus, scariosus. _Petala_ 5. _Sem._ 1.
superum.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
STATICE _sinuata_ caule herbaceo, foliis radicalibus alternatim pinnato sinuatis: caulinis ternis triquetris subulatis decurrentibus. _Lin.
Syst. Vegetab._ _p._ 301.
LIMONIUM peregrinum foliis asplenii. _Bauh. Pin. 192._
LIMONIUM Rauwolfii Marsh Buglosse. _Parkins. Parad. p. 250._
[Ill.u.s.tration: 71]
That this singular species of _Statice_ was long since an inhabitant of our gardens, appears from PARKINSON, who in his _Garden of Pleasant Flowers_, gives an accurate description of it, accompanied with an expressive figure; since his time it appears to have been confined to few gardens: the nurserymen have lately considered it as a newly-introduced species, and sold it accordingly.
It is one of those few plants whose calyx is of a more beautiful colour than the corolla (and which it does not lose in drying); it therefore affords an excellent example of the _calyx coloratus_, as also of _scariosus_, it being sonorous to the touch.
Being a native of Sicily, Palestine, and Africa, it is of course liable to be killed with us in severe seasons, the common practice is therefore to treat it as a green-house plant, and indeed it appears to the greatest advantage in a pot; it is much disposed to throw up new flowering stems; hence, by having several pots of it, some plants will be in blossom throughout the summer; the dried flowers are a pretty ornament for the mantle-piece in winter.
Though a kind of biennial, it is often increased by parting its roots, but more advantageously by seed; the latter, however, are but sparingly produced with us, probably for the want, as PARKINSON expresses it, "of sufficient heate of the Sunne."
