The Duchess of Beauforts Flowers PT2

 

Finally found the Bradley issue where Gordon Rowley goes through the paintings, so grabbed a PDF and its a big help. This entry we look at an Opuntia and whatever that is growing down below. 

Here is another plant with a fig connotation but with quite a different form. Opuntia is the Greek name given to the prickly pear or Indian fig, the word supposedly coming from the ancient town of Opus in Greece, known as the town of figs. This fig should not be confused with the fruit of the broadleaved tree Ficus to which it has a likeness in the shape of the fruit only. Opuntias grown freely and often to a large size in Mediterranean countries but they came originally from the hot countries of the New World including Mexico and Brazil. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Aztecs were producing a gum called nopal from the plants from which they made various remedies including one for burns in which nopal was mixed with honey, eggs and herbs.

The prickly pieces are easily broken off* to make new plants, hence it is a familiar house plant, which with care can be brought into bloom in spring' the flowers may be yellow, orange, red or purple. It is important that they should not be overwatered and one recommendation is that they should only be given water when the weather report for Mexico says rain.** The flattened ovoids are really enlarged stems in which water is stored and the stomata from which the prickles emerge are vestigial leaves which may be raised areoles, barbed bristles or white spines. These have the power of hindering transpiration or holding dew, and are arranged in a geometrical spiral, one of nature's favourite structures.

The fruits of many opuntias are edible*** and are supposed to be nutritious. They are eaten raw or cooked as a vegetable and can be made into a fermented drink, while the plants with the spines burnt off are sometimes fed to cattle. There is one species, Opuntia cochenillifera, which was cultivated in tropical America to provide food for the insects**** that were used to make cochineal., before synthetic food dyes were manufactured. 

The blurb for this is mostly right and yes that is an Opuntia in the foreground (Opuntia compressa) and the succulent at the base is Jordaaniella dubia, and not as I thought, a Tillandsia. I never knew about making fermented drinks from it but the nopals when treated to remove the spiny glochids, are used as a vegetable. 

* Indeed they are, you haven't lived until you have an armful of small glochids along with a chunk of stem clinging to your arm. Almost impossible to remove without some pain and the use of tweezers.

** Which is cute, but wrong the standard cactus instructions stand here. No watering between Halloween and April Fools day and then only weekly. The Opuntia tribe can stand some cold though being as its the most northernly (Manitoba) and Southernly (Maihuenia down in Patagonia) growing species of cactus. 

*** Have done this but found it to be waxy and the seeds are bullet hard. Not sure about growing them  though.

**** OK confession time, my uncle worked for the dye factory down near the tip and gave me a small bottle of the mealy bugs that were processed to make cochineal. The only time a cactus grower really wants mealy bug on their plants. 

The Duchess Of Beaufort's Flowers pt1

 

Happy new year. This is going to be a series for most of the coming month ahead if not leading into February. I picked up this book at a boot-sale last year and have just gotten round to reading it. It's an old flora with some commentary on what the various species are grown by Mary Capel, the first Duchess Of Beaufort.

As a cactus fan, we'll only cover that which depicts succulents and I'll give a commentary on what I think the plants are as the people writing are unfamiliar with what they are. I note that there is a write up in an old Bradleya by Gordon Rowley, if I can find it for download or sale I'll see if we agree. (He was BCSS president so he'll be much more right than I ever will). Anyway this is the entry for plate 7 as seen above.

Plate 7 Ficoides and Statice.

Ficoides is the name  given in the index to no fewer than seventeen plants painted by Kychicus, mostly small daisy-like flowers with succulent leaves shown at the base of a group. The word "Ficoides" means literally 'like a fig' but there is no resemblance to the fig leaf or family in the plants painted nor is there a plant called by that name in horticulture now. Kychicus, however, also records that they were from South Africa. Now there is in that country a plant called vygie in Afrikaans which means "little fig" and refers to the edible fruits of the mesembryanthemum which is also called Hottentot fig and fig marigold. Both the fruits and the leaves of this plant have a slight narcotic content and act as a stimulant. In East Africa the crushed fruit is used in the making of bread and the ash as a source of washing powder. 

It is indeed a very large family of curious plants both recumbent and tall but each having a daisy-like flower and yet not of the daisy or Compositae family. The family Aizoaceae is called after the iceplant whose fleshy leaves have innumerable translucent dots which shine like dew drops in the shade but in the sun appear as brilliant crystals, and whose leaves seem always cold to the touch.

Mesembria means 'midday' and anthemon is a flower, thus the name describes the flower's  habit of only opening in full sun. Dorotheanthus* and Livingstone daisy are other modern names for the plant painted by Kychicus. They grow in this country from seeds or cuttings taken from the thick leaf and if placed in a sunny position provide flowers useful for bedding designs in vivid colours including crimson, purple, orange, blue and yellow. The illustration shows their versatility. The centre plant is a tall white mesembryanthemum with slim yet succulent leaves; on the right are two with yellow flowers, one a tall plant with a rough stem almost like a trunk of a tree and the other a recumbent variety with a larger flower. On the left are two not in flower but with an interesting and different leaves. 

So a rather nice potted history on the genus Aizoaceae. She's wrong on a few points here and doesn't drill down species shown. There are no blue flowered mesembs, but all other colours mentioned are correct as are the uses. Sceletium and Psilocaulon used to be used for a mild narcotic and as ash in lye making and are now treated as part of the much expanded Mesembryanthem genus. 

*Dorotheanthus is now treated as part of Cleretum another annual species. 

Finally you can grow them from cuttings and indeed seeds which I have done in the past. though the more stemless varieties are better off grown from seed. Finally I'll give you my definition of what I think these species represent. 

Across from the top left is:

A statice or sea lavender.

An unknown shrubby mesemb, which I thought was a species of daisy but now I'm looking at it properly, seems to be a white flowered Lampranthus. It's not Ruschia as its not pink. Though it could conceivably be a Delosperma.  EDIT. Finally its Delosperma Ecklonis.

Some unknown Asteraceae species. Due to its composite flower I'm going to guess a fleabane or likewise. I know it by sight but not by name. 

From the bottom row.

Orbea Variegata. A well known Asclep, with its starfish flowers and bad smell. Some of you may know it as a Stapelia. 

Glottiphyllum.  Although they couldn't place this in the book. Its obvious to me with its huge fleshy leaves and big yellow flowers that this is a Glottiphyllum. Helps that last quarter's journal had a guide to the species, but this doesn't help narrow it down, as they are notoriously hard to tell apart.

Uptown.

A final post for 2025, and we decided to go up town to see if Japan centre were still doing their free Gyoza.  Turns out no, but did get canned coffee instead which was nice. 

Got some cheap CDs in the sale which includes the sublime Oneohtrix point never release on Editions Mego and a double pack with Kevin Saunderson (mixes and remixes) along with a Decius promo which looks like its essentially benders acid. 

Also went to Hamleys for the first time in absolutely ages and there is Harry Potter stuff in the basement so if you want to see a big Lego Hagrid and also some weird zombie witch thing (Wicked, also Lego).

But mostly they had Gundam Gunpla figures, which were cool.

I'll wrap it up by saying there was some chick dressed as a pirate singing out the front and leave you with some photos. 

I wIlL eAt yOuR SoUl

Nice

Year review 3 everything else

 This is more like what I've missed this year and what I've learned. 

Films / Gaming and stuff.

Been working through Elite Dangerous, and its a great game but I've also come to realize this from the XBOX Platform. Its just an unpopular PC wearing a console as a skin suit. This could be Windows XP or even Vista. Hell its the Vista of  home consoles. Anyway back to Elite. It's a nice thing, really good and welcomes a good in depth, hands on of learning the controls, sadly combat is still impossible and no autopilot hack from Frontier to make it bearable. 

Films... Forget it I've seen nothing great this year.

Everything else.

Finally got to see a mantis for the first time in years, thanks to a late night sortie out of the block. Along with the Gecko and a close up view of a Shag on the rocks. This was a great holiday. 

I still don't know what that crab I saw was which is galling and am still kicking myself for not taking the shot of the oil beetle. But this is me always with the regrets and not the wins. I still have to see if that channel of him putting up Kommisar / Inspector Rex subs is still up. 

This year I finally got Renoise. Not as in actually bought, but for some reason it just clicked and am working with it. I'll still use Psycle and such but it seems that as a program that's still being worked on. Its a good replacement. 

EDIT. Lastly and this is definitely not an afterthought, this was the year the Labour party decided to censor the entire internet here with their anti wanking laws. It seems that Brave and its private tor window is the only thing keeping the net bearable now.

Year review pt2

 Since we junked Kiss FM last year I've had nothing really bad to listen to all year. We have Heart on at work which is actually duller. Wallpaper radio, just filler audio and the same bad tracks over and over again.

Worst was finding out Ed Sheeran has a new track out that isn't bejaisus Oirish but Indian inspired instead. Oh yeah its awful.

The new Xmas number one from Kylie Minogue isn't too bad, not a banger just adequate and if it keeps that celebs for Palestine track off number one (which it did) I'll be grateful. 

Good stuff was hard to find this year. Polygon Window Surfing on Sine Waves got reissued this year with the bonus single  tracks added. Squarepusher Whooski was also rereleased which was total left field. I guess it was released under another name which means that it went over everyone's head back then. Sold pretty poorly if his notes on this are correct.

I'm sure I've forgotten so much more which I liked or at least was worth the money made. 

Final shout out to me for rescuing some water damaged vinyl from the last boot sale of the season. We finally got a version of Promised Land by Joe Smooth and The Night Writers Let The Music Use You.

Year review pt1

 Year review time. The traditional round up of what was good on the telly and music wise that I've seen this year.  We'll start with television. 

A few good things this year. 

Unforgotten giving us the best Autistic character rep in Marty Baines, and despite a weak ending, one of the true must see television spectacles of the year. 

An end to Vera where instead of killing her off, just let her retire with grace and such. I'm never sure which of Ann Cleeves books are based on her and which are Shetland stories but it was nice to see an actual good end for once. Also there's a nice folk song the Magpie used in this. 

Cooper and Fry.

Another northern detective show, this time on Channel 5. A mix of folklore and local era detective work.

Also based on a book that I've never seen.  A nice redemption for Mandip Gill who was in Doctor Who with Jodie Whittaker. She played the new detective Diane Fry down from Leeds and settling in Edendale, Derbyshire. Like I say it's one of those series I'll have to keep an eye out for, but never seemed to be on my radar. 

Miranda awards.

This goes to Watson an incredibly generic and dull medical drama in the vein of House and other shows of its ilk. 

In the style of Lucy Liu, make Doctor Watson a minority (in this case a black dude) and erase any personality he may have. I lasted all of ten minutes and gave up, it was that dull. #

EDIT.

The war between the land and sea or whatever they're calling it. A five part Sunday night snoozefest. It's by Russell T Davies so be grateful it didn't turn out like this. You wish that it ended with every Aqua homo killed off with the virus, but it didn't. It was preachy anti climate nonsense, with a side of boring. 

Double Edit.

For some reason I've blanked this entirely. Murder most Puzzling, Phyllis Logan as a crossword compiler and Man 2 Man Male Stripper for some reason. Its awful, I would say its part daytime murder mystery but some of that is pretty good (Father Brown). This is the Sister Bonerface (Boniface) of a murder mystery. Unwanted and unwarranted.  

Pentagon Spies

Rather appropriate seeing as the heavily redacted Epstein files have been released we get a story all about shenanigans at the Pentagon in Washington.  

Or is it about someone stealing weathervanes in Amish country in Pennsylvania. Because this is what this story is mainly about. The boys are tasked with trying to protect a weathervane out in the Pennsylvania Deutsch country from a gang of thieves. They of course fail and follow it all the way to Chesapeake Crossing out in the bay. Of course there is an intelligence option their dad is following, someone stealing Pentagon secrets and a missing man who is supposedly the spy.  Could the two cases be linked.

As this is a later edition there are no changes to the script between the US and UK editions, even though for some places this would actually be welcome (tag sale = garage sale for one), and I'm not sure if this was in a hardback rather than a paperback which most of the books were. 

You can pick what edition you want here or here.