Part 2
Instead of a new plant, we here submit to our readers one that according to the Kew Catalogue has been an inhabitant of our gardens 239 years: but neither Mr. Alton nor Mr. Miller had ever seen it blossom, nor during all this long period have we any account of its flowering in this country. Its male flowers however appeared in the Cambridge Botanic Garden the beginning of last February, and from a specimen communicated by Mr. Donn to A. B. Lambert, esq. the present drawing was taken. Mr. Donn’s plant was between 4 and 5 feet high, moderately branched, and had the same treatment as his other green-house shrubs. We are uncertain whether the hermaphrodite or female plant be yet in this country; but as the propagation is principally from seed, we think it is very probable. The stamens in our specimen vary in number, being commonly 5, sometimes 6, and more rarely 8. The fruit is added from a dried legume in the Lambertian collection, which was sent from Spain by the late Abbé Cavanilles, who in his _Icones Plantarum_, _vol._ 2. _p._ 8. and _tab._ 113. (in addition to what was formerly known of the Ceratonia) informs us, that it grows spontaneously on little hills and dry fields in Valencia, and is yet more impatient of cold and moisture than the olive, vast numbers being sometimes killed there by the frost in severe winters. It is in this province also, that the principal cultivation of this useful plant in Spain is situated. The propagation is from seeds, and the diœcious plants are always selected in preference to the hermaphrodites, being better bearers. Some of the more skilful cultivators engraft a male bough upon their female plants for their impregnation, and by this means have no sterile plants in their collections. They flower twice a year, first in February, and again more plentifully in August and September; which is also the time of the fruit’s ripening, and the trees are seen at the same time adorned with blossoms, and laden with ripe fruit. Eighty pounds of legumes are sometimes collected from a single tree. They are known to be mature by their putting on a chesnut colour, and are then beaten from the trees by canes of the _Arundo Donax_ from 16 to 20 feet long, with part of their crooked roots left, which serve as hooks. Rain is said to be beneficial to the ripe fruits, and even to improve them after they are laid in heaps on the ground. They are finally dried and stored up in barns for use. The cultivators enumerate three varieties, which they call _Melars_, _Llandars_, and _Costelluts_. The last they distinguish by having larger leaves and of a deeper green, with legumes often a foot long, but with little solidity or sweetness; the second has shorter legumes, but more solid and very sweet; the leaves also are shorter. The first are called Melars (_quasi Melleas_) from _Mel_ honey, of which the fruit contains small drops, and sometimes in such abundance that it distils upon the ground, and is fed upon by the bees. The fruits are the principal food of the cattle in the province of Valencia, and also form part of the sustenance of the poor people. The leaves are used in the preparation of leather. Monsieur Olivier also informs us in his _Travels in the Ottoman Empire_, that the Carob-tree grows all over the Island of Crete, and delights most in stony grounds and the clefts of rocks; that the fruits are conveyed thence to Constantinople, to Syria and Egypt, and serve for food to the poor and to children. They are also an ingredient in the sherbets of which the Mussulmans make daily use.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXVIII.
LIPARIA SPHÆRICA.
_Round-headed Liparia._
CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.
_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Chives.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX quinquefidus, lacinia infima elongata. Corollæ alæ inferius bilobæ. Filamenta alternatim breviora. Legumen polyspermum.
CALYX 5-cleft, the lower segment very long. Wings of the blossom two-lobed on the lower side. Chives alternately shorter. Pod many-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
LIPARIA floribus capitatis; foliis lanceolatis, nervosis, glabris. _Willd. Sp. Pl. vol._ iii.
LIPARIA with flowers in heads; the leaves lance-shaped, nerved, and smooth.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A bract. 2. The empalement. 3. A flower spread open. 4. The chives. 5. The same spread open. 6. Seed-bud and pointal. 7. A back view of the head of flowers.
* * * * *
Africa has long been celebrated as the land of wonders and novelties, and its vegetable as well as animal productions well entitle it to that character. The beauty and astonishing variety of ever-varying Geraniums, delicate Ixias, elegant Ericas, superb Amaryllises, and magnificent Proteas, received from the Cape of Good Hope alone within these few years, and many of them totally unknown before, have given to our gardens that splendour and perpetual novelty which justly make them the admiration of the world. What still more enhances the pleasure is, that the mine is yet unexhausted, as our present charming subject, not before enumerated in any of our catalogues of cultivated plants will testify. Mr. Milne, gardener at Fonthill, well known for his zeal and skill in the cultivation of rare plants, obligingly communicated the specimens. Having forwarded the first a little too early, being struck with the singular beauty, and not knowing the habits of the plant, a fortnight after he forwarded a third specimen fully expanded, from which the figure is taken. Mr. Milne informs us, that he raised the Liparia from Cape seeds some years ago, and has kept it in the conservatory, where it is now in blossom. The plant is branchy, and between four and five feet in height. He thinks he possesses two more new species of the genus raised at the same time, which have not yet blossomed with him.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXIX.
CEANOTHUS LANIGER.
_Woolly Ceanothus._
CLASS V. ORDER I.
_PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Five Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
PETALA 5, saccata. Bacca sicca, 3-locularis, 3-sperma.
PETALS 5, bagged. Berry dry, three-celled, three-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
CEANOTHUS foliis oblongo-lanceolatis, integerrimis, subtus lanuginosis; ramulis, pedunculis, petiolis, calycibusque hirsutis.
CEANOTHUS with the leaves oblong-lanced, entire, and woolly beneath; the branches, footstalks, flowerstalks, and calyxes hairy.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower. 2. A segment of the calyx, with a petal and stamen attached. 3. Seed-bud and pointal.
* * * * *
To New Holland we export criminals for our convenience and safety, and from thence import furs for our covering and flowers for our amusement. So far the balance of trade is in our favour. But by whose hands, or at what time, our present subject was first brought over, we have not been able to learn. The specimen was communicated by A. B. Lambert, esq. in the beginning of April from his collection at Boyton, and we have also seen the plant very finely in flower at Mr. Whitley’s nursery, Brompton. Its woolly leaves and branches, contrasted with the Mimosas and other hard-leaved plants from the same country, make an agreeable variety, and the early blossoms are very ornamental. The plants we have seen are moderate-sized branchy shrubs, are kept in the green-house like other New Holland plants, and require no particular treatment. We have seen more species from the same country in herbariums, and some are now alive in this country, although they have not yet blossomed.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXX.
JUSTICIA NITIDA.
_Shining-leaved Justicia._
CLASS II. ORDER I.
_DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Two Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX simplex seu duplex. Corolla 1-petala, irregularis. Capsula ungue elastico dissiliens: dissepimentum contrarium; adnatum.
EMPALEMENT simple or double. Blossom one-petalled, irregular. Capsule splitting with an elastic claw: partition contrary to the valve; affixed.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
JUSTICIA fruticosa: foliis ellipticis, acuminatis: racemis spicæformibus, verticillatis: bracteis minutis: pedicellis calycibusque glabris.
_Swartz._ _Flora Indiæ occidentalis._
Habitat in insulis Jamaicæ, S. Christophori, Martiniquæ, S. Crucis, et Guadalupæ.
JUSTICIA with a shrubby stem: leaves elliptic and pointed: raceme in the form of a spike, whorled: floral leaves small: footstalks and calyx smooth.
Native of Jamaica, St. Christopher, Martinique, St. Croix, and Guadaloupe.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower spread open. 2. Seed-bud and pointal, 3. The capsule. 4. The same split open.
* * * * *
Of this species of Justicia the only figure extant that we know of is a very indifferent representation of it in Sloane’s Jamaica, evidently from a dried specimen. The fine glossy character of the foliage has furnished it with a specific title. The flowers are abundant in succession, but, like most of this genus, of a deciduous or short-lived character. It was introduced to the British gardens, according to Donn’s Catalogue, in 1793, Our drawing was made from a plant brought from the West Indies by Lord Seaforth, which flowered in August 1808 in the hot-stove of A. B. Lambert, esq.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXI.
SIDA PATENS.
_Spreading Sida._
CLASS XVI. ORDER VIII.
_MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA._ Threads united. Many Chives.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX simplex. Stylus multipartitus. Capsulæ plures, mono-seu tri-spermæ.
CALYX simple. Pointal many-parted. Seed-vessels many, one-or three-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
SIDA foliis cordatis, dentatis, longè acuminatis, leviter pubescentibus; pedunculis solitariis petiolis longioribus; corollis patentibus; stylis quinquepartitis; capsulis quinque, birostratis.
SIDA with heart-shaped, toothed, long-pointed, and slightly woolly leaves; solitary flower-stalks longer than the footstalks; spreading corollas, five-parted styles, and five two-beaked capsules.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement. 2. The chives spread open, one tip magnified. 3. Seed-bud and pointal.
* * * * *
Another African novelty introduced by Viscount Valentia in 1806 from Abyssinia; and from specimens obligingly communicated by him from his gardens at Arly the drawing is taken. From the seeds already introduced by his Lordship from that yet unexplored, and hitherto almost inaccessible country, and from the connexions he is now endeavouring to establish there, Mr. Salt, who travelled in his Lordship’s suite, being now dispatched on an embassy to the King of that country at Gondar, we may soon hope to have a few more specimens of its vegetable productions; at present as imperfectly known as the sources of the Nile, which have eluded the researches of philosophers above two thousand years.
Sida patens, in the natural arrangement of the genus, should be placed next to _Sida reflexa_ of Cavanilles and Willdenow.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXII.
PROTEA SALIGNA.
_Willow-leaved Protea._
CLASS IV. ORDER I.
_TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Four Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
COROLLA 4-fida, seu 4-petala. Antheræ lineares, petalis infra apices insertæ. Calyx proprius, nullus. Semina solitaria.
BLOSSOM four-cleft, or of four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the points. Cup proper, none. Seeds solitary.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
PROTEA foliis obliquis, lanceolatis, pubescentibus: capitulis oblongis, involucratis, terminalibus.
Feminei flores ramos terminant cum cono ovato magnitudine pisi, involucro bicolori circumdato.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
PROTEA with oblique, lance-shaped, hairy leaves: heads of flowers oblong, involucrated, and terminal.
Female flowers terminate the branches with an ovate cone about the size of a pea, surrounded by a two-coloured involucrum.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower, one tip magnified. 2. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified. 3. Section of a head of flowers from the female plant. 4. Seed-bud and pointal, magnified.
* * * * *
Protea saligna, in the Species Plantarum of Linnæus, is considered as only a variety of P. conifera, but is certainly specifically distinct in its foliage, however resembling in other particulars. Finding, soon after we had made our drawing, a female plant in fine bloom, we have annexed a branch of it on the same plate, to elucidate as much as possible the apparent confusion that at present seems to pervade this section of the Genus Protea. The P. saligna of Thunberg, enumerated by Willdenow, we have no doubt, describes the female specimen we have represented, the cone being there mentioned as about the size of a pea, and which exactly accords with our figure. The drawings were made from plants introduced to this country from the Cape of Good Hope, in the year 1806, by G. Hibbert, esq.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXIII.
MAGNOLIA AURICULATA.
_Ear-leaved Magnolia._
CLASS XIII. ORDER VII.
_POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA._ Many Chives. Many Pointals.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 3-phyllus. Petala 6-12. Capsulæ 2-valves, imbricatæ. Semina baccata, pendula.
CUP 3-leaved. Petals 6-12. Capsules 2-valved, tiled. Seeds berried, pendulous.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
MAGNOLIA foliis obovato-lanceolatis, basi attenuatis, auritis, glabris, subtus glaucis.
Habitat in America boreali.
MAGNOLIA with obovate lance-shaped leaves, attenuated towards the base, eared, smooth, and glaucous beneath.
Native of North America.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A chive. 2. Seed-bud and pointals.
* * * * *
Amongst the finest hardy exotics that ornament the gardens, the Magnolias are eminently conspicuous. A fine species of that description our figure represents, drawn from a plant seven feet high in the nursery-ground of Messrs. Whitley and Brames, who inform me that it was sent to them from Maryland in North America, by Mr. Bartram, about the year 1793. It does not seed with us, as very few of the genus do; and when any of them appear to have ripened their seed perfectly, we understand they have very rarely if ever vegetated. This species is perfectly hardy, but is with difficulty raised by layers; which accounts for its being (after a period of sixteen years since its first introduction to this country) not so generally known as it deserves to be. It flowers in the month of May.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXIV.
PULTENÆA OBCORDATA.
_Inversely Heart-leaved Pultenæa._
CLASS X. ORDER I.
_DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Ten Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX quinque-dentatus, utrinque appendiculatus. Corolla papilionacea, alis vexillo brevioribus. Legumen uniloculare, dispermum.
CUP five-toothed, with an appendage on each side. Blossom butterfly-shaped, with the wings shorter than the standard. Pod of one cell, with two seeds.
See Pultenæa Daphnoides, Pl. XCVIII. Vol. II.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
PULTENÆA foliis obcordatis, mucronatis, nitidis.
PULTENÆA with inversely heart-shaped leaves, mucronated, and shining.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement. 2. The vexillum. 3. One of the wings. 4. The two petals of the keel. 5. The chives and pointal, one tip magnified. 6. Seed-bud and pointal.
* * * * *
This nondescript species of Pultenæa is a native of New Holland, and was discovered on Van Diemen’s Land by Mr. Littlejohn, one of the residents on Governor Collins’s settlement. It possesses lively yellow flowers, and singularly obcordate leaves, and is a handsome addition to the genus Pultenæa, of which it is a genuine member, having the two little appendages on the cup, the principal (although trivial) leading feature that characterizes the genus. Our drawing was made from a specimen communicated by A. B. Lambert, esq. with whom it has flowered for the first time in this country.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXV.
MARTYNIA DIANDRA.
_Diandrous Martynia._
CLASS XIV. ORDER II.
_DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA._ Two Chives longer. Seeds covered.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 5-fidus. Corolla ringens. Capsula lignosa, corticata, rostro hamata, 4-locularis, 4-valvis.
CALYX five-cleft. Corolla gaping. Capsule woody, covered, with a hooked beak; 4 divisions, and 4 openings.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
MARTYNIA caule ramoso, foliis oppositis, cordatis, dentatis, floribus diandris. _Willd. Sp. Pl._
MARTYNIA with the stem branching, leaves opposite, heart-shaped, and toothed, and flowers diandrous.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement. 2. The chives. 3. Seed-bud and pointal. 4. The capsule.
* * * * *
We are glad to have an opportunity of giving a figure of a plant so very ornamental, and so rarely met with in our collections. Martynia diandra is a native of Mexico about Vera Cruz, and requires to be kept in the hothouse, or glass frame with artificial heat, and has much the same delicate texture as the Martynia proboscidea. Of the figures that have before been published of it, that of Jacquin in his Hortus Schœnbrunnensis, vol. iii. plate 289, is by far the best. A specimen was communicated by A. B. Lambert, esq., in November 1808, and another in May last from a plant which had outlived the winter, and from which the present figure is taken. All the species of Martynia are considered as annuals.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXVI.
LITHOSPERMUM TINCTORIUM.
_Dyers’ Bugloss._
CLASS V. ORDER I.
_PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Five Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
COROLLA infundibuliformis, fauce perforata, nuda. Calyx 5-partitus.
BLOSSOM funnel-shaped, with the mouth open and naked. Cup 5-cleft.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
LITHOSPERMUM villosum caulibus procumbentibus. _Sp. Pl. editio prima._
LITHOSPERMUM hairy. Stem procumbent.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement. 2. A blossom spread open. 3. Seed-bud and pointal.
* * * * *
This rare plant, enumerated in the Hortus Kewensis upon the authority of Sutherland’s Catalogue of the Plants in the Physic Garden at Edinburgh, published in 1683, has been long a desideratum in our collections. It grows naturally in dry sandy places about Montpelier, and also in the southern provinces of the Russian empire, from whence we have seen fine specimens collected by Professor Pallas in Mr. Lambert’s Herbarium, which now contains the whole collection made at the expense of the Russian Government, during the space of 30 years, by that great naturalist and his assistants. The plant is well calculated for ornamenting rock-works, or light sandy and gravelly borders. The roots are an article of trade, and used to give a red colour to oils, wax, and spirits of wine. Linnæus, after having very properly arranged this plant as a Lithospermum in the first edition of his Species Plantarum, afterwards removed it to the genus Anchusa, which alteration has since been adopted by every editor of his works. The character, however, is decidedly that of a Lithospermum; and the alteration would be difficult to account for, were it not for a memorandum of the late M. L’Heritier (published in the Flore Française), stating that he had seen another plant under that name in the Linnæan herbarium. It therefore appears that Linnæus, after having described the true plant, from his not possessing a specimen of it had afterwards mistaken some species of Anchusa for it. The plant, however, was retained in its proper genus by Gerard in his Flora Gallico-Provincialis, and he has since been followed by Decandolle in the Flore Française. We are aware of Professor Vahl and Willdenow’s having given to another Lithospermum the name of tinctorium; but if the genus Arnebia of Forskahl is given up, the characteristic specific of tetrastigma applied to it by Lamarck may be restored. We have never seen any figure of the plant but that of Plenck, Aubriet’s in Alyon’s Cours de Botanique, and the wooden cut of John Bauhin; the plant figured under the name of Anchusa tinctoria in Woodville’s Medical Botany being the Anchusa officinalis. Specimens were communicated by A. B. Lambert, esq., and there is also a fine spreading plant of it now in blossom (May 27th) in the natural ground, in Mr. Harrison’s nursery at Brompton.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXVII.
PROTEA VIRGATA.
_Twiggy Protea._
CLASS IV. ORDER I.
_TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Four Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
COROLLA 4-fida, seu 4-petala. Antheræ lineares, petalis infra apices insertæ. Calyx proprius, nullus. Semina solitaria.
BLOSSOM four-cleft, or of four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the points. Cup proper, none. Seeds solitary.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
PROTEA foliis linearibus acutis, supra concavis, subtus convexis: floribus confertis, procumbentibus.
Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.
PROTEA with linear pointed leaves, concave above, and convex beneath. Flowers crowded, and lying on the ground.
Native of the Cape of Good Hope.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower complete, summit magnified.
* * * * *
The application of specific titles to this wide-spreading family of plants is now become an arduous task; and considering how many of the best are already occupied, an exclusive reference cannot be expected. This species of Protea is altogether new, but bears a powerful resemblance in the flowers to the P. humiflora: but the distinct character of its foliage gives to the tout ensemble a perfect air of novelty; nor is there any figure or description of it extant, that we know of.
Our drawing was made from a fine plant at the nursery of Mr. Knight in the King’s Road, Chelsea.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXVIII.
ÆGIPHILA DIFFUSA. Fig. 1.
_Spreading Ægiphila._
CLASS IV. ORDER I.
_TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Four Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 4-dentatus. Corolla 4-fida. Stylus semibifidus. Bacca bilocularis, loculis dispermis.
CUP four-toothed. Blossom four-cleft. Shaft cleft half-way down. Berry two-celled, cells two-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
ÆGIPHILA foliis ovato-lanceolatis, longè acuminatis, utrinque glabris; paniculis diffusis axillaribus et terminalibus; staminibus tubo vix excedentibus, stylo longissimo.
ÆGIPHILA with oval-lanced, long pointed leaves, smooth on both sides; panicles spreading, axillary, and terminal; stamens scarcely longer than the tube, and shaft very long.
ÆGIPHILA OBOVATA. Fig. 2.
_Inversely Oval-leaved Ægiphila_
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
ÆGIPHILA foliis obovatis acuminatis, utrinque glabris; paniculis axillaribus et terminalibus; pedicellis calycibusque minutè pubescentibus.
ÆGIPHILA with leaves inversely oval, pointed and smooth; panicles axillary and terminal; flower-stalks and calyxes minutely pubescent.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement. 2. A blossom spread open. 3. Seed-bud and pointal, as it appears in the opening buds. 4. The same when fully expanded.
* * * * *
This very natural genus was established by Jacquin from the Bois Cabril of the Creoles in Martinico, a shrub, the young shoots of which are greedily sought for and eaten by their cattle, particularly goats, whence the name (in English) Goatwood; and which Jacquin, following the botanical canon, elegantly turned into Ægiphila. With this species the celebrated Swartz has conjoined the Knoxia of Browne’s Jamaica and Manabea lævis of Aublet’s Guiana, and added two more species, Æ. fœtida and Æ. trifida, discovered by himself; and Willdenow has yet further augmented it with the Manabea villosa and arborescens of Aublet, and the Nuxia of Lamarck: the last, however, we consider as a very doubtful species. That fine collection of plants from the West Indies, introduced in 1807 by lord Seaforth, and by him presented to A. B. Lambert, esq. and which we have already so often quoted, has brought to our knowledge two more species, which we have denominated diffusa and obovata, from what appeared to us to be their most prominent features. Both shrubs are natives of the West Indies, and were sent to us in flower in August 1808. They are propagated by cuttings, and have not yet ripened seeds in England, but produce flowers annually in abundance during the months of July and August.
[Illustration]
PLATE DLXXIX.
CRATÆGUS AZAROLUS.
_The Azarole._
CLASS II. ORDER XII.
_ICOSANDRIA DIGYNIA._ Twenty Chives. Two Pointals.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX quinquefidus. Petala quinque. Bacca infera, 1-5-sperma.
CUP five-cleft. Blossom five petals. Berry below, with from 1 to 5 seeds.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
CRATÆGUS foliis obtusis, subtrifidis, dentatis, pubescentibus.
CRATÆGUS with blunt, pubescent, toothed leaves generally 3-cleft.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower spread open. 2. The same shown from the outer side.
* * * * *