Chapter II: Part 2

Mr. Ord obtained his plants of Mr. Gordon, nurseryman at Mile End, who introduced the species from China in the year 1753. The first time of its flowering in this country, we learn, was in his Grace the Duke of Northumberland’s collection at Sion, in August 1797. The only figure we have seen is in Jacquin’s Hortus Schœnbrunnensis, vol. iii. Burmann, in his Flora Indica, and after him Linnæus, describe the flowers as white. In Mr. Ord’s garden they are of a faint yellow, as in the figure of Jacquin; and in the specimens which we have seen from Sion House, faint yellow tinged with purple. Excellent in the study of flowers is the maxim of Virgil,

“.... Nimiùm ne crede colori.”

PLATE DLXXXVI.

LILIUM SPECIOSUM.

_Showy Lily._

CLASS VI. ORDER I.

_HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Six Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA 6-petala, campanulata: nectarium linea longitudinalis:
capsulæ valvulis pilo cancellato connexis.

BLOSSOM 6-leaved, bell-shaped. Nectary a longitudinal line. Valves
of the seed-pod connected with a lattice-work of hairs.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

LILIUM foliis sparsis, ovato-oblongis: floribus cernuis mox
revolutis: caule ramoso.

Lilium speciosum. _Willd. Sp. Pl._

LILY with scattered oval-oblong leaves: the flowers nodding, soon
rolled back, and the stem branching.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Seed-bud and pointal.

* * * * *

We can but seldom have the pleasure of recording so valuable an acquisition to our collections as this truly magnificent species, introduced from China by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks about the year 1807, and a figure of it also published by him in 1791, being plate 47 of the Icones Selectæ, from drawings made in Japan by Kæmpfer, and now deposited in the British Museum. The woolliness and bulbs on the stem in our specimen, and the want of constriction at the base of the leaves, (if any such ever exists in nature,) differ considerably from the figure above quoted; but the strong general resemblance, and a consideration of the many variations to which other species of this genus are subject, induce us to regard it as a variety from the same common stock. The stem rises to between three and four feet in height, and sometimes even higher; and produces from three to nine or more flowers, according to its strength and situation. The bulb which it produces from the base of every leaf forms a future plant, and thus to unrivalled beauty adds abundance. Its time of flowering enhances its value, being in August, when all other lilies have deserted the parterre. Mr. Williams, nurseryman at Turnham Green, favoured us with the specimen.

PLATE DLXXXVII.

CORCHORUS? JAPONICUS _flore pleno_.

_Japanese Corchorus with double flowers._

CLASS XIII. ORDER I.

_POLYANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Many Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA 5-petala. Calyx 5-phyllus, deciduus. Capsula plurivalvis,
loculamentosa.

BLOSSOM of 5 petals. Cup 5-leaved, falling off, Fruit with many
valves, subdivided.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

CORCHORUS capsulis rotundis glabris, foliis
duplicato-serratis.--_Flora Japonica, p. 227._

CORCHORUS with round smooth capsules, and the leaves doubly sawed.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The pointals.

* * * * *

This elegant shrub is amply described in the Flora Japonica of Professor Thunberg, who found it growing naturally about Nagasaki, Miaco, and various parts of the Japanese empire; where it is also commonly cultivated for ornament. The double variety here figured he particularly specifies as naturally adorning the country about Miaco. In Houttuyn’s Pflanrensystem, vol. vii. plate 54, there is also an engraving of it. The single-flowered has not yet been introduced to this country. The time of blossoming is in early spring: but it does not appear to confine itself to that season, as we have been favoured with fresh specimens at various seasons from April to October; and we may therefore safely predict its being long a favourite with cultivators. The flexile twigs starred with blossoms look at a little distance like garlands, and extend when supported to a great length. All the flowers that we have seen are from 5-to 8-gynous; which, with the singular form of the capsule, makes us consider it as a very doubtful species of Corchorus. The Japanese name is Jamma Buki.

Our figure is taken from specimens communicated by Mr. Milne of Fonthill, who informs us that his plant now growing in the conservatory is ten feet high. We first observed it in bloom early last spring at Messrs. Colville’s, and in several other collections during the summer, but smaller both in flowers and leaves.

PLATE DLXXXVIII.

SIDA HASTATA.

_Halberd-leaved Sida._

CLASS XVI. ORDER VIII.

_MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA._ One Brotherhood. Many Chives.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX simplex, angulatus. Stylus multi-partitus. Capsulæ plures,
1-seu 3-spermæ.

CUP simple-angled. Shafts many-parted. Seedpods many, one-to
three-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

SIDA foliis inferioribus cordatis angulatis, superioribus
elongato-hastatis; pedunculis axillaribus, unifloris, longissimis.

Sida hastata, _Willd. Sp. Pl._

SIDA with the lower leaves somewhat heart-shaped and angled, the
upper ones long-halberd-shaped; flower-stalks very long,
one-flowered, and axillary.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The chives spread open.
2. The pointals.

* * * * *

This species was first properly distinguished and described by the Spanish botanist Cavanilles in his Dissertatio de Sida, where he has also given a figure of it; and upon this with the Sida cristata and Dilleniana his genus Anoda was founded. Other botanists, however, have not agreed to this division, and both Professor Martyn in his Dictionary and Willdenow still consider them as Sidas of which they now enumerate 99 species; and the new species brought from Abyssinia by Lord Valentia, and published in our 117th number, completes the century. Most of the species have been destined by nature to blossom beneath a milder sky than ours; the Sida hastata was found by the French botanist Dombey growing naturally in Peru and Lima in moist places; and A. B. Lambert, esq., who favoured us with the specimen last September, received the seeds from the East Indies, The two other varieties of this enumerated by Cavanilles and Willdenow we have not seen. The plant is annual, and has yet been kept in the stove.

PLATE DLXXXIX.

GLADIOLUS ANGUSTUS, _minor_.

_Small Narrow-leaved Cornflag._

CLASS III. ORDER I.

_TRIANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Three Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA sexpartita, ringens. Stamina adscendentia.

BLOSSOM six divisions, gaping. Chives ascending.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

GLADIOLUS foliis linearibus, longis, costatis; corollis
flavescentibus; petalis tribus inferioribus rubro notatis.

Gladiolus angustus. _Jacquin. Icones, tab. 252, vol. ii._

CORNFLAG with linear leaves long and ribbed: blossom yellowish; the
three lower petals marked with red.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The outer sheath of the empalement.
2. The inner sheath.
3. A blossom spread open.
4. Seed-bud and pointal.
5. Flower of a larger variety.

* * * * *

Our figure represents a plant from the nursery of Mr. Williams, and which we at first were inclined to regard as a distinct species from the Gladiolus angustus of Jacquin: but meeting soon after with a plant in the collection of Messrs. Whitley and Brames, of larger dimensions, (a flower of which we have represented,) its intermediate character appears, upon comparison, to connect a regular chain of variation, the smallest link of which is (at present) the one now figured.

Both plants are of easy culture, requiring no other treatment than what is common to bulbs of this class.

PLATE DXC.

MESPILUS ODORATISSIMA.

_Sweet-scented Mespilus._

CLASS XII. ORDER V.

_ICOSANDRIA PENTAGYNIA._ Twenty Chives. Five Pointals.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX 5-fidus. Petala 5. Bacca infera, 5-sperma.

CALYX 5-cleft. Petals 5. Berry below, 5-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

MESPILUS foliis utrinque pubescentibus, pinnatifidis; laciniis
incisis.

MESPILUS with leaves downy on both sides, and wing-cleft; with the
segments slit.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement and pointals.
2. A branch of ripe fruit.

* * * * *

For this undescribed species of Mespilus we are indebted to the Right Hon. the Marquis of Bath, who first observed it to be distinct from the Mespilus tanacetifolia, with which it has commonly been confounded, and pointed out the specific differences to Mr. Lambert in 1807. The accuracy of his Lordship’s observations we have often verified this summer in the different collections about London, and find the two species quite distinct in fruit, foliage, and bracteæ. Mespilus odoratissima forms handsome dwarf trees, from 6 to 12 feet high in the specimens we have seen. The blossoms appear in June, and are remarkably fragrant, but considerably smaller than in M. tanacetifolia; but this is abundantly compensated by the livelier colour and greater profusion of the fruit with which the boughs are loaded in autumn. The tree called by Professor Pallas Cratægus orientalis, (see the English translation of his Travels in the Crimea, vol. ii. p. 174 and 181,) and which he found cultivated for its fruit in the south-western parts of the Crimea, where it also grows wild on the mountains, is this species, as we have ascertained from his Herbarium; and the little red Medlar found in Anatolia by Tournefort, (see his Travels, vol. ii. p. 322 of the English translation,) noticed by Dr. Smith in his Exotic Botany, is probably the same thing. We were favoured with the specimens both of this and M. tanacetifolia (our next plate) by the Right Hon. the Marchioness of Bath, from Longleat.

PLATE DXCI.

MESPILUS TANACETIFOLIA.

_Tansy-leaved Medlar._

CLASS XII. ORDER V.

_ICOSANDRIA PENTAGYNIA._ Twenty Chives. Five Pointals.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX 5-fidus. Petala 5. Bacca infera, 5-sperma.

CALYX 5-cleft. Petals 5. Berry below, 5-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

MESPILUS floribus bracteatis; foliis pinnatifidis; laciniis argutè
serratis, pubescentibus.

MESPILUS with bracts to the flowers; the leaves wing-cleft, with
the divisions sawed and downy.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement and pointals.
2. A branch with ripe fruit.

* * * * *

Neither is this species enumerated in the works of Linnæus. The great French botanist Tournefort, who discovered it on the mountains of Anatolia in 1701, thus describes it: “These mountains produce a fine sort of Azarolíer or Medlar-tree; there are some as big as oaks. Their trunk is covered with a cleft grayish bark; the branches are bushy, and spreading out on the sides; the leaves are in bunches two inches and a half long, fifteen lines broad, shining, a little hairy on both sides, commonly divided into three parts even to the rib, and these parts indented very neatly on the edges, pretty much like the leaves of tansy; the part at the end of the leaf is again divided into three parts. The fruit grow two or three together at the end of the young shoots, and resemble small apples of an inch diameter with five roundings like the ribs of a melon, a little hairy, pale green inclining to a yellow, with a navel raised of five leaves. We sometimes find one or two of these leaves growing out of the flesh of the fruit, or its stalk. The fruit though agreeable is not so pleasant as our Medlar, but I believe it would be excellent if it were cultivated. The Armenians not only eat as much of this as they can, but likewise fill their bags. The short period the tree has been introduced (not above 20 years, as we are informed) will not allow any in England, as yet, to have reached the size above mentioned; and we much doubt whether it may be thought worthy of cultivation here for the fruit: but the beauty of the tree and agreeable fragrance of the blossoms sufficiently recommend it to a place in the pleasure-garden. This and the last described species with the artificial characters of the genus Mespilus have all the natural habits of Cratægus, and show how ill even our most admired systems are calculated to trace and mark these fine gradations, which, while they yet distinguish, closely connect all nature. Too often the hue and cry of “Heretics! Innovators!” thundered out by the schools against all who will not implicitly follow their dogmas, drive the calm and unprejudiced students of nature out of the field. Yet he that discovers one new truth is surely a benefactor to society; but he that defends and inculcates error is a tyrant in the kingdom of Nature.

PLATE DXCII.

MIMOSA GRANDIFLORA.

_Great-flowered Mimosa._

CLASS XXIII. ORDER I.

_POLYGAMIA MONOECIA._ Flowers Male, Female, and Hermaphrodite, on the same Plant.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

HERMAPHRODITI. Calyx 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-fida vel 5-petala.
Stamina 4-200. Pistillum 1. Legumen bivalve.

MASCULI. Calyx 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-fida sen 5-petala. Stamina
4-200.

HERMAPHRODITES. Cup 5-toothed. Blossom 5-cleft or 5-petalled.
Chives 4 to 200. Shaft 1. Pod two-valved.

MALE FLOWERS. Cup 5-toothed. Blossom 5-cleft, or of 5 petals.
Chives 4 to 200.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

MIMOSA inermis, foliis bipinnatis, multijugis, ciliatis; racemo
composito terminali.

Acacia grandiflora. _Willd. Sp. Pl. 4. p. 1074._

MIMOSA unarmed, with doubly-winged leaves in many pairs and
ciliated, and flowers in a compound terminating bunch.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
2. The chives spread open.
3. The pointal.

* * * * *

This species, conspicuous by its tall woody stems, large purple blossoms, and delicate foliage, was brought to the Royal Gardens at Kew from India by Mrs. Norman, about the year 1769. It is a plant of quick growth, and blossoms freely, but has never produced any pods in this country. The only figure of it we have seen is that by Reinagle in Dr. Thornton’s Illustration of the System of Linnæus. A plate however was finished for L’Heritier, who first described it; but his death prevented its publication. The stamens (as in many other Mimosas) are united near the base. The blossoms open in succession from the bottom of the bunch upwards, and continue great part of the summer. The leaves are deciduous. The specimen was communicated from Boyton by A. B. Lambert, esq. in August.

PLATE DXCIII.

CROTALARIA TETRAGONA.

_Four-sided Crotalaria._

CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.

_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Stamens.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

LEGUMEN pedicellatum, turgidum. Stamina omnia connexa.

POD on a stalk, swollen. Stamens all connected.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

CROTALARIA caule tetragono, strigoso; petiolis brevibus, foliis
oblongo-lanceolatis, acuminatis; stipulis caulem amplexantibus.

CROTALARIA with the stem 4-sided, with flat pressed hairs: short
footstalks: leaves oblong-lanced, and pointed: stipules embracing
the stem.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The keel.
2. The chives and pointal.
3. Seed-bud and pointal.

* * * * *

This new and very ornamental species is remarkable for having the under lip of the calyx often undivided, and every part of the plant up to the blossom covered with shining close-pressed hairs: nor are they entirely wanting on the blossom; on the lower part of the keel they are very conspicuous, hanging downwards like a little beard. A groove with a fringe on each side runs also along the upper side of the style towards the summit. Two thread-shaped silky stipules rise at the base of every leaf-stalk, and, being reflected backwards, closely embrace the stem. A solitary stipule also rises at the base of each flower-stalk, and two where it unites with the calyx: but these, from their singular situation, must perhaps be considered as bracteæ.

We were favoured with the specimens in November from Lord Valentia’s gardens at Arley, along with the Plectranthus barbata. His Lordship received the seeds last year from Dr. Roxburgh in India, by the name of Crotalaria tetragona. The plant appears to be shrubby. No account of the species has before been published. Its place in the genus is near to the Crotalaria juncea figured in our sixth volume.

PLATE DXCIV.

PLECTRANTHUS BARBATUS.

_Bearded Plectranthus._

CLASS XIV. ORDER I.

_DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA._ Four unequal Stamens. Naked Seeds.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX laciniâ summâ majore. Corolla resupinata, ringens; tubo
sursùm gibbo vel calcarato.

CUP with the upper division largest. Blossom lying on its back,
gaping; tube with a spur above or swelled out.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

PLECTRANTHUS racemis bracteatis, bracteis deciduis; foliis ovatis,
crenatis, pubescentibus, rugosis, per petioles decurrentibus:
corollæ labio superiore emarginato brevissimo; inferiore subovato,
concavo, hirsuto.

PLECTRANTHUS with bracts to the bunches, bracts falling off: the
leaves oval, scolloped, downy and wrinkled, running down the
footstalks; the upper lip of the blossom short, and slightly
notched; the lower nearly ovate, compressed and hairy.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
2. A blossom with the segments cut off to expose the chives.
3. The seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.

* * * * *

The stem of Plectranthus is four-sided with blunt corners, and woolly. The leaves are fleshy, minutely dotted on both sides, and border their footstalks down to the stem. The flower-stalks, the lower part of the cups, and under lip of the blossom, are set with stiff clear bristles. The tube of the blossom is without a spur, and swelled on the upper side. Every part of the plant has a powerful fragrance. The specimens were communicated in November by Mr. Giddings, gardener to Lord Valentia at Arley; with a letter stating, that he raised the plants from Abyssinian seeds sent home by his Lordship about four years ago, and that they grow at Arley to about two feet in height, and thrive with the common treatment of stove plants.

The first species known of this genus, Plectranthus punctatus, the Ocymum punctatum of Linnæus, was also brought from Abyssinia by the celebrated Bruce.

PLATE DXCV.

PANAX FRUTICOSUM.

_Shrubby Panax._

CLASS XXIII. ORDER II.

_POLYGAMIA DIŒCIA._ Flowers Male, Female, and Hermaphrodite on different Plants.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

HERMAPHRODITUS. Umbella. Calyx 5-dentatus, superus. Corolla
5-petala. Stamina 5. Styli 2 vel 3, sæpe cohærentes. Bacca 2-vel
3-sperma, infera.

HERMAPHRODITE. An umbel. Cup 5-toothed, above. Blossom 5-petalled.
Stamens 5. Shafts 2 or 3, sometimes cohering. Berry 2-or 3-seeded,
below.

The male or female flowers we have never seen.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

PANAX foliis supradecompositis, dentato-ciliatis; caule fruticoso.
_Willd. Sp. Pl._

PANAX with leaves more than doubly compound, ciliated with little
teeth; the stem shrubby.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Empalement, chives, and pointals.
2. The pointals.
3. The plant in miniature.

* * * * *

On examining the flowers of this curious and rare species of Panax, we were a little startled to find how widely they differed from the character of the genus; being trigynous, and the berry three-seeded. Professor Jacquin has also observed the same variation in the flowers of P. aculeatum (see his Icones, tab. 634); and fifty years ago Trew observed and delineated the same number of styles in Panax trifolium, one of the original species upon which the genus was established. Nor had this escaped the scrutinizing eye of that profound observer of nature Bernard Jussieu. From these authorities, therefore, in consonance with our own observations, we have enlarged the character of the genus to include the species. Panax fruticosum, as we learn from Rumphius’s Herbarium Amboinense, vol. iv. p. 78 and 79, rises to between five and six feet in height, with a stem as thick as a man’s arm, and grows naturally in the Island of Ternate, where it is also much cultivated by the natives for food, medicine, and œconomy; being planted to separate the areas of their gardens and mark the boundaries of their fields. The boiled leaves are eaten as greens, and a decoction both of the leaves and root is used successfully in nephritic diseases, for which they also sometimes prescribe the roots to be eaten raw. The fame of the plant as a powerful diuretic is also great in Amboyna; where, as well as in Ternate, it is commonly planted both for ornament and use. Labillardiere, the French botanist, who accompanied the expedition that sailed in quest of the unfortunate Lapeyrouse, informs us (in his account of the voyage) that when at Amboyna he found this plant encircling the tomb of the venerable Rumphius, its first described.

Nature he loved; with her he spent his hours:
The grateful goddess wreathes his tomb with flowers!

The famous _Gin-seng_, to which the Chinese attribute such extraordinary virtues, and which, as Osbeck informs us, was commonly sold in their shops in 1751 (see his Travels, English edit. p. 222) for from 30 to 40 times its weight in silver, and which one of their Emperors, 40 years before that, sent 10,000 Tartars in quest of at once, is said by that author to be a species of Panax; but the plant is yet unknown in Europe. Panax fruticosum, we are informed, was introduced to this country about the year 1800, and requires to be kept in the hot-house. The specimen was communicated from Boyton by A. B. Lambert, esq.

PLATE DXCVI.

LAURUS CINNAMOMUM.

_Cinnamon Tree._

CLASS IX. ORDER I. OR CLASS XXII. ORDER VII.

_ENNEANDRIA MONOGYNIA_, or _DIŒCIA POLYANDRIA_. Nine Stamens. One
Style, or Male and Female Flowers on different Plants. Stamens more
than Seven.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX nullus. Corolla 6-partita, glandulis tribus germen
cingentibus. Filamenta interiora glandulifera. Drupa 1-sperma.

CUP none. Blossom 6-parted. Glands three, surrounding the germen.
Inner filaments bearing glands. Berry dry, one-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

LAURUS foliis trinerviis ovato-oblongis, nervis versus apicem
evanescentibus. _Willdenow, Sp. Pl. vol. 2. p. 477._

LEAVES three nerved, oval-oblong, nerves vanishing towards the
point of the leaf.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A flower spread open, shown from the outer side.
2. The same shown from the inner side.
3. The pointal.

* * * * *

For the first tolerable figure of the Cinnamon tree we are indebted to Dr. Hermann, Professor of Botany at Leyden who had also the honour of introducing it to Europe, having brought living plants with him, on his return from Ceylon, which vegetated in the Leyden Academy’s garden, and in the gardens of Mynheers Benting and Beverning between two and three years, until a severe winter destroyed them. See his Catalogue of the Plants in the Leyden Garden (Horti Academici Lugduno-Batavi Catalogus), page 130, plates 665 and 666. This fact is the more curious, as Linnæus, describing the Cinnamon from dried specimens in his noble patron Clifford’s collection, fifty years after, speaks of it as a plant forbidden to our shores; which Europe had never seen alive, and could hardly hope to see, or to retain even if it could be procured.

The Cinnamon was first cultivated in England by Mr. Miller in the Apothecaries’ garden at Chelsea about the year 1768; who probably received it from Holland, the Spice plantations at that time being entirely in the hands of the Dutch. No figure of it has before been published in this country, nor any account of its flowering. It grows naturally in the Island of Ceylon, from whence the vast quantity annually imported into Europe is supplied. The following method of procuring and preparing the bark is abridged from Thunberg’s Travels. Proper trees being selected, that is, those that are neither too young nor too old, the branches of three years growth are cut off with a pruning-knife, and their green outer bark scraped off with a crooked knife. The remaining bark is then ripped up lengthwise and peeled off and the smaller pieces being drawn into the larger, they are laid in the sun to dry. After being sufficiently dried, they are tied up in bundles of about 30 pounds weight each, and brought to the Company’s storehouses, where inspectors appointed for that purpose examine every bundle by tasting of it; and on its being approved of, it is tied in bundles of about 85 pounds weight each, which are then sewed into double woollen sacks, over which black pepper is strewed to attract any remaining moisture, and in this state shipped for Europe. From the dust and fragments remaining in the warehouses the extremely valuable and rare oil of Cinnamon is distilled. An oil is also distilled from the leaves, another from the fruit, and a fourth from the bark of the root.

Cinnamon is also found wild in the woods of Martinico, according to Professor Jacquin; but the Ceylon Cinnamon is always considered the best.

We are informed by our friend Mr. Anderson, that a Cinnamon tree in the garden of the Bishop of Winchester at Farnham Castle (perhaps the finest in England) has for many years blossomed and ripened its fruit annually, and that great numbers of young trees have been raised from the fruit, which have far surpassed for healthiness and hardiness the plants commonly obtained from layers, or those imported; and which leads us to hope that the Cinnamon trees may soon become more common and less difficult of cultivation: and his lordship’s great success with it will, we hope, serve to stimulate others. We have also seen a drawing in Mr. Lambert’s collection, taken in the Bishop of Durham’s garden at Mongewell, where it flowered, as we are informed by his lordship, in February 1796.

The Cinnamon tree requires to be kept in the bark-bed in the stove, and is propagated by cuttings and layers.

Our drawing was made in the month of February at J. Knight’s nursery, King’s Road, from a fine plant upwards of three feet high.

PLATE DCXVII.

TROPÆOLUM PEREGRINUM.

_The Little Bird Plant._

CLASS VIII. ORDER I.

_OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Eight Stamens. One Style.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX monophyllus, calcaratus, quinquefidus. Petala duo ad quinque.
Stigma trifidum, seu stigmata tria. Drupæ tres, siccæ, et
monospermæ.

CUP of one leaf with a spur five-cleft. Petals two to five. Summits
three, or summit three-cleft. Berries three, dry, and one-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

TROPÆOLUM petalis serrato-incisis, duobus maximis, tribus minimis.
_Jacq. Hort. Schœnb. 1. p. 51. tab. 98._

TROPÆOLUM with the petals tooth-gashed, two much larger than the
rest; three very small.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Chives and pointal.
2. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.

* * * * *

The Tropæolum peregrinum grows naturally in Peru, and was gathered wild by the French naturalist Feuillée near the town of Lima. The native name, according to that author, is Malla; the Spaniards call it Paxarito, which signifies a little bird; from the resemblance the expanded blossoms have to little humming-birds flying. Attaching itself by the long footstalks of the leaves to the branches, the plant often ascends to the very summits of trees in its native soil; and Professor Jacquin, director of the Emperor of Germany’s gardens at Schœnbrunn, informs us (in the work above quoted) that it grew there in the open ground to twenty-six feet in length, with a stem of a finger’s thickness, and a great many branches, but produced no flowers until transplanted into the green-house. A. B. Lambert, esq. who communicated the specimen from his gardens at Boyton last November, informs us that he cultivated it in a three-light melon-frame, which it completely filled, branching in all directions, and producing almost innumerable blossoms. The seeds but rarely ripen in this country, and are generally imported from Spain or Portugal. The plant, however, may be propagated by cuttings. Besides the five species of Tropæolum enumerated in the edition of the Species Plantarum by Willdenow, and the new species in our last volume (T. pennatum), three more species are described and figured in the Flora Peruviana of Ruiz and Pavon; some of which, and others of the many beautiful flowers of that country, the great intercourse now carried on with South America gives us to hope that we may soon see. One of the species in the Flora Peruviana having only two petals, has obliged us to make a little alteration in the generic character.

PLATE DXCVIII.

BÆCKIA VIRGATA.

_Twiggy Bæckia._

CLASS VIII. ORDER I.

_OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Eight Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-petala. Capsula 3-seu 4-locularis,
polysperma, calyce tecta.

CUP 5-toothed. Blossom of 5 petals. Fruit 3-or 4-celled,
many-seeded, covered by the cup.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

BÆCKIA foliis lineari-lanceolatis pellucido-punctatis, pedunculis
axillaribus umbelliferis.

Leptospermum virgatum. _Forster._

BÆCKIA with linear-lanced leaves with transparent dots; the
flowerstalks axillary, and bearing umbels.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A petal.
2. The chives and pointal.
3. The same shown from the under side.

* * * * *

In the Island of New Caledonia, celebrated by Captain Cook (above all others) for the courteous, friendly, and honest disposition of the men, and the inflexible virtue of the females, (see his Second Voyage, vol. ii. p. 105 to 127.) and whence every day brought them something new in natural history, this plant with many others was discovered by the two Forsters, who accompanied him as naturalists, and is published in their Genera of Plants gathered in the Islands of the South Seas as a species of Leptospermum. Dr. Smith, however, justly observes, that neither the number of stamens, the fruit, nor the opposite leaves, agree at all with that genus, but most naturally with the Linnean genus Bæckia, of which several species have lately been found in New Holland. The stamens vary from eight to ten; the germen three-celled, with about sixteen seeds in each; but how many of these ripen we have had no opportunity of observing. The leaves are not absolutely without nerves, as described by Forster; we find them faintly three-nerved in his own specimen, but they are more conspicuously so after they become dry, particularly on the under side. In the specimens with which we have been favoured by Mr. Milne from Fonthill, the leaves are a little smaller than those upon the original specimen, which may be occasioned by this plant’s being yet so young, being raised only three years ago in the collection of the Marquis of Bath. The time of flowering is October. The Leptospermum virgatum of Willdenow we cannot quote, his descriptions being from two plants of very different genera jumbled together into one species.

* * * * *

In the 277th Number of The Botanical Magazine the writer,
endeavouring to destroy the authority of the figure of Yucca
gloriosa in The Botanist’s Repository, vol. vii., and establish
that of his own as the first, says that our figure cannot belong to
that plant, in which “the trunk reaches only from six inches to two
feet (Miller says in his Dictionary, from two feet and a half to
three feet!) in height, and where the leaves are quite entire; but
to Y. aloifolia, whose trunk reaches from 6 to 10 feet in height,
and the leaves have a finely crenulate edging.” Our drawing was
taken at Lord Boston’s from a plant only ten feet high, the stem
little more than three, and the leaves not in the least crenated!
The panicle in our figure is also said to be much closer than in
that, with its branches likewise more lax and drooping. With all
these contradictory qualities, however, it very much resembles
Barreliere’s figure of the same, which the writer himself has
quoted, and in which the curvature of the buds, which he holds to
be so extraordinary, is also conspicuous. No less curious is his
objection to the tinge of purple on the flowers. Could it be
possible that he had not seen either the plant that he way
describing or the drawing of it? (See the figure in The Botanical
Magazine.) But we leave the Yuccas to speak for themselves. The
filamentosa he has also complimented with five feet of a stem
(Botanical Magazine, No. 900), and quoted Micham’s authority for
it, although that author expressly says that it is stemless!

PLATE DXCIX.

CHAMÆROPS HUMILIS.

_Dwarf Fan-Palm._

CLASS XXIII. ORDER II.

_POLYGAMIA DIŒCIA._ Stamens and Pointals on different Plants, with some perfect Flowers occasionally.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

MASC. Calyx 3-partitus. Corolla 3-petala. Stamina 6.

HERMAPH. Calyx, corolla et stamina ut in masculis. Styli 3. Drupæ
3, monospermæ.

MALES. Cup 3-parted. Blossom 3-petalled. Stamens 6.

HERMAPHRODITES. Cup, blossom and stamens as in the males. Styles 3.
Berries 3, dry, one-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

CHAMÆROPS frondibus palmatis, stipitibus spinosis, spathâ simplici.
_Willd. Sp. Pl. 4. p. 1154._

CHAMÆROPS with palmate boughs, prickly footstalks, and simple
sheaths.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Empalement and blossom.
2. The same shown from the outer side.
3. The chives.

* * * * *

The Dwarf Fan-Palm is the only species indigenous to Europe, where it grows naturally in Italy on the coast of Etruria, in the Island of Sicily, and in Spain in the province of Valencia, where we are informed by Cavanilles, in his Icones Plantarum, (vol. ii. p. 12.) it is most commonly found stemless, and in that tract called Desierto de las Palmas, or the Desert of Palms, with stems rarely exceeding two feet in height. In the district of Xabea, however, on the coast of the Mediterranean, he found many with stems fourteen feet high, and one as high as thirty feet. The same author informs us that the lower part of the stem, which enters the earth, and the heads of young blossoms before they burst from the sheath, are eaten by the Spaniards, to whom also the leaves are of the greatest utility, furnishing them with mats, ropes, brooms, and baskets, in the manufacture of which boys are principally employed, and women during the evenings in winter. Many of our fair countrywomen, we fear, spend their evenings less usefully. Professor Pontedera, in his Anthologia, published at Padua in 1720, has given three good plates of the Chamærops and its fructification, taken from a plant, the stem of which was twelve feet high, growing in the public garden there. From this author we learn that the young shoots or suckers from the bottom of the plant (called there cefaglioni) are eaten by the Italians. The Chamærops also grows spontaneously upon uncultivated hills on the coast of Barbary, where the lower part of the young stems and the roots are also eaten by the Moors; and the leaves, after being macerated in water, made into mats, ropes, baskets, &c., as in Spain. (See Desfontaines’ Flora Atlantica, vol. iii. p. 473.) Willdenow takes notice of two varieties of the Chamærops, one of which is nearly stemless, and the other twenty feet in height; and the former of which is probably that cultivated in England, as we have never met with any of a large size, although the plant has been in our gardens since the year 1731; while that in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, (nearly twenty feet high,) mentioned by Chevalier Lamarck in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, seems to be the second variety. Our drawing was taken early in March, in Malcolm’s Nursery at Kensington, from a male plant about two feet in height with three fine bunches of male blossoms.

PLATE DC.

GÆRTNERA RACEMOSA.

_Racemed Gærtnera._

CLASS X. ORDER I.

_DECANDRIA MONO-DI-TRIGYNIA._ Ten Chives. One to Three Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX 5-partitus. Petala 5 lacero-ciliata, inæqualia. Stamina
decem, unicum reliquis longius. Stylus incurvus. Stigma simplex.
Germen triloculare, 3-spermum. Samara inæqualiter quadrialata,
monosperma.

CUP five-parted. Petals five, cut-fringed, unequal. Stamens ten,
one longer than the rest. Style incurved. Summit simple. Seed-bud
of three cells with three seeds. Fruit with four unequal wings,
one-seeded.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
2. The same shown from the outer side.
3. The chives and pointals.
4. The seed-bud and pointals.
5. The capsule.

* * * * *

This curious and interesting plant, originally considered as a species of Banisteria by Linnæus, was very properly separated and named in honour of the celebrated Gærtner by Schreber in his Genera Plantarum; and Cavanilles nearly about the same time published it in his Ninth Dissertation, under the name of Molina, in honour of the author of the Natural History of Chili. Gærtnera however has the right of priority, and has been continued by Dr. Roxburgh in his Plants of the Coast of Coromandel, where he has given a figure and description of the plant, (vol. i. p. 19. tab. 18.) and by Willdenow in his edition of the Species Plantarum.

On examining the fructification, we have found the plant more closely allied to Banisteria than has hitherto been suspected, the styles being commonly two with a rudiment of a third, and the germen three-locular with a young seed in each cell; but the inequality of the petals and stamens, the solitary gland on the calyx, and the abortion of the lateral seeds, furnish abundant distinctions.

From the Coromandel plants above quoted we learn that it is a large climbing shrub, growing naturally on the Circar mountains in India, and is commonly cultivated all over that coast on account of the beauty and fragrance of its flowers, which open there during the rainy season. According to Linnæus it is also a native of the Island of Ceylon. No other species of the genus has yet been described. The plant is certainly a great acquisition to our collections, and was introduced from India by the late Lady Amelia Hume about the year 1805. Our specimen was communicated from the collection at Wormley Bury the end of last March.

PLATE DCI.

CROTALARIA PULCHRA.

_Fair Crotalaria._

CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.

_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Stamens.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

LEGUMEN pedicellatum, turgidum. Filamenta connata cum figurâ
dorsali.

POD on a footstalk, swollen. Filaments united into a tube, which is
cleft at the back.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

CROTALARIA caule hirsuto; foliis simplicibus, elliptico-obovatis,
integerrimis, sericeis, nitentibus; leguminibus calyce tectis
bracteisque strigoso-sericeis.

CROTALARIA with a hairy stem; simple, elliptical, inversely oval,
entire, silky, shining leaves: the pods, the calyx which covers
them, and the bracts, all shining with silky hairs.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
2. The standard.
3. One of the wings.
4. The keel.
5. Chives and pointal.
6. The seed-bud and pointal.

* * * * *

The choice collection of the late Lady Amelia Hume, at Wormley-bury, Herts, which before furnished us with the magnificent and unrivalled Pæonia papaveracea, has again produced us this new species of Crotalaria, seeds of which were received by her ladyship, about the year 1807, from the East Indies, under the name of C. pulcherrima, which we have abridged to pulchra, as we can hardly presume to say which species is most beautiful before we have seen the whole genus, which, from the large catalogue of Indian species by Dr. Roxburgh in his unpublished Indian Flora, a copy of which we have seen in the collection of A. B. Lambert, esq. (besides the forty-four species already published by Willdenow) we think is not soon likely to happen.

Crotalaria pulchra is as yet in very few collections in this country, nor have we heard of its blossoming in any other collection. The foreign specimens which we have seen with the Catalogue above mentioned in the same collection have very large spreading bunches of flowers, and there can be no doubt but the plants in this country, when a little stronger, will blossom with equal profusion. The plant is a native of the Mysore country in the East Indies. We received the specimen in the middle of March last.

PLATE DCII.

GLYCINE COMPTONIANA.

_Comptonian Glycine._

CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.

_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Chives.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX bilabiatus. Corollæ carina apice vexillum reflectens.

CUP two-lipped. Keel of the blossom turning back the standard at
the end.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

GLYCINE volubilis, foliis ternatis elongato-ovatis utrinque
glabris, petiolis partialibus supra pubescentibus, racemis
axillaribus multi-floris.

GLYCINE twining; the leaves by threes of a long egg-shape, smooth
on both sides; the partial footstalks hairy above; the bunches
lateral and many-flowered.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
2. The standard.
3. One of the wings.
4. The keel.
5. Chives and pointal.
6. The seed-bud and pointal.

* * * * *

This elegant species is a native of New Holland, and belongs to that division of the genus with many-seeded pods without any partitions. We find in the germen the rudiments of eight kidneyshaped seeds, but the ripe fruit we have not seen. Having found no antecedent description or figure of the plant, we have named it in honour of Lady Northampton, in whose collection at Castle Ashby it flowered last April. But by whom it was introduced we are uncertain.

PLATE DCIII.

COMMERSONIA DASYPHYLLA.

_Hairy-leaved Commersonia._

CLASS V. ORDER V.

_PENTANDRIA PENTAGYNIA._ Five Chives. Five Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX monophyllus 5-partitus. Petala 5 linearia basi sublobata,
apice inflexa. Nectarium 5-partitum. Filamenta ad basin petalorum,
brevissima. Germen subglobosum. Styli erecti. Stigmata capitata.
Capsula dura, setosa, 5-locularis, 5-valvis, loculis 2-4-spermis.

EMPALEMENT of one leaf 5-parted. Petals 5, linear, commonly lobed
at the base, turned in at the point. Nectary 5-parted. Threads at
the base of the petals, very short. Seed-bud nearly round. Styles
erect with their summits headed. Capsule hard, bristly, with 5
cells and 5 valves, the cells from 2-to 4-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

COMMERSONIA foliis elongato-cordatis inæqualiter serratis supra
subtusque hirsutis.

COMMERSONIA with long heart-shaped unequally toothed leaves hairy
on both sides.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Empalement, chives and pointals, magnified.

* * * * *

Commersonia dasyphylla is a low branching shrub, a native of New Holland or Van Diemen’s Land, and is remarkable for a powerful odour of cucumbers which it emits when in blossom, and even retains for some time after it is dried. Being a plant which blossoms freely in early spring, and of very easy culture, it well deserves a place in the green-house or conservatory. Only one species of Commersonia has before flowered in England, the C. echinata of our last volume (Plate 519), but which has since been discovered to be a different species from the original C. echinata of Forster; which error we take the present opportunity of correcting, and beg of our readers to erase the name echinata in our 519th plate and description, and substitute platyphylla, with the following specific description:

COMMERSONIA platyphylla, foliis elongato-cordatis dentatis, supra
stellato-hispidulis, subtus hirsutis, mollibus.

BROAD-LEAVED Commersonia with toothed leaves of a long heart-shape,
a little rough with star-like bristles on the upper side; hairy and
soft below.

Another nondescript Commersonia from Van Diemen’s Land is now in our gardens, but has not yet blossomed; and we have seen dried specimens of a fifth species brought from New Holland by the late Governor King, in the collection of A. B. Lambert, esq.

We were favoured with the specimen of C. dasyphylla by Mr. Milne, from Fonthill, last April. The plant is at present in very few collections, and has not, we believe, yet blossomed anywhere else in England.

PLATE DCIV.

MALPIGHIA POLYSTACHIA.

_Branching Malpighia._

CLASS X. ORDER I. TO III.

_DECANDRIA MONO-DI-TRIGYNIA._ Ten Chives. One to Three Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX 5-phyllus basi extus poris binis melliferis. Petala 5
subrotunda, unguiculata. Filamenta basi cohærentia. Drupa
1-locularis tripyrena, nucibus monospermis.

CUP 5-leaved with two honey-bearing pores on the outside at the
base. Petals five, nearly round with claws. Threads cohering at the
base. Berry fleshy of one cell with three large bony seeds.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

MALPIGHIA foliis lanceolato-ovatis integerrimis glabris nitidis,
subtus prope basin biglandulosis; racemis axillaribus et
terminalibus; pedicellis uniglandulosis; floribus monogynis;
stigmate capitato.

MALPIGHIA with lance-ovate, entire smooth shining leaves, with two
glands on their underside near the base; bunches both from the
sides and tops of the branches; flowerstalks with one gland; style
one; stigma headed.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
3. The chives spread open.
3. Seed-bud and pointals.

* * * * *

This splendid Malpighia is one of that fine collection of West Indian and American plants (we have before mentioned) made by Lord Seaforth when Governor of Barbadoes, and brought home with him on his return to England. From the catalogue of the collection we learn that the plant is a native of Trinidad, and his Lordship informs us that it was sent to him from that island by Mr. Thompson.

The species ought to be arranged between the M. nitida of Linnæus and M. glandulosa of Cavanilles, from both of which the glands on the leaf and solitary gland on the pedicel easily distinguish it. In the last circumstance, however, it agrees with the M. glandulosa of Jacquin, (see his Icones, tab. 469.) but is totally different both in the flowers and foliage. A. B. Lambert, esq., from whose stove at Boyton we were favoured with the specimen, informs us that it is a shrub of very free growth, throwing out long slender twigs on all sides, and requiring the frequent use of the knife to keep it in due bounds. The bunches of flowers first appeared in November, but did not open until the beginning of April. The leaf-stalks are thinly covered with silky bristles, some of which also appear towards the base of the younger leaves.

PLATE DCV.

PELIOSANTHES TETA.

_Bengal Peliosanthes, or Teta._

CLASS VI. ORDER I.

_HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Six Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX nullus. Corolla 6-partita, subrotata, laciniis lato-ovatis
obtusis. Nectarium corollâ triplò breviore incumbente, ore
angustato integro. Stamina sub ore nectarii affixa. Filamenta
subnulla. Stylus crassus, brevis, obtusè trigonus, trisulcatus.
Stigma sulculus tripartitus in apice styli. Germen inferum,
3-loculare loculis dispermis. Semina (immatura) obovata, erecta,
fundo loculamenti affixa. Fructus bacca? subovata, carnosa.

CUP none. Blossom 6-parted, nearly wheel-shaped, the divisions
broadly egg-shaped, blunt. Nectary three times shorter than the
blossom, leaning inwards, the mouth narrowed and entire. Stamens
affixed under the lip of the nectary. Filaments scarcely any.
Pointal fleshy, short, bluntly three-sided, with three furrows.
Stigma a little three-branched channel on the top of the pointal.
Germ below, of three cells which are two-seeded. Seeds (while
young) inversely egg-shaped, erect, and affixed to the bottom of
the cells. Fruit a berry? nearly oval, fleshy.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A segment of the flower magnified.
2. Seed-bud and pointal magnified, with the seeds exposed.
3. Seed-bud cut transversely, magnified.

* * * * *

This very curious plant, so distinct from every genus hitherto described, was introduced from the East Indies, at the same time with the Gærtnera figured in our last number, by the late Lady Amelia Hume. The roots are fibrous and perennial, as are also the leaves, which rise from the root upon footstalks embracing one another at the base, and are of a long lance-shape with strong longitudinal nerves, which are transversely interwoven with little branching veins. The flower-stalks are round, rising to from one to two feet in height, with membranaceous bracts scattered at regular distances, and were four in number in the specimen which we have figured. The blossoms grow in a kind of raceme formed of little bunches or tufts of two to four flowers each: the footstalks are of unequal lengths with a joint near the top, and are attended by incurved bracts at the base, the lowermost bract at each tuft being always the largest. The germ is nearly top-shaped, but a little hexangular upwards. Three of the divisions of the blossom are just perceptibly broader than the other three, and both the corolla and nectary are closely pierced with transparent dots hardly visible to the naked eye, but very distinct when magnified.

We have seen a very good coloured drawing of the plant taken in India in the collection of J. Fleming, esq. which represents the fruit (which has not yet ripened in England) as a bluntly oval, fleshy berry, with the seeds in pairs as in the germ. Both this drawing and the plant received from India by Lady Amelia Hume were marked _Teta viridiflora_; Teta being perhaps (if we may hazard a conjecture) the name applied to the plant by the native Indians. However this may be, as it appears to be known in India by that name, we have retained it for the specific designation; applying to the genus, in conformity to the Linnæan canons, (from πελιος, lividus, and ανθς, flos,) the name of Peliosanthes. Our drawing represents the original plant imported from India, with which we were favoured by Sir Abraham Hume, bart. last April, through the kindness of A. B. Lambert, esq. who has also informed us, from Dr. Roxburgh’s MSS. in his possession, that the plant is found growing naturally about Chittagong in the East Indies. We have just seen two other species of the genus in the curious collection of T. Evans, esq. at Stepney, imported by him last Autumn from Prince of Wales’s Island, of which they are natives. One of them has the leaves nearly of a blue colour; and Mr. Evans’s collector informs us, that he found five or six species growing naturally in the island above mentioned, although he had not the good fortune to bring them alive to England.

Linnæus was of opinion, that there were not above ten thousand plants in the world; but above five-and-twenty thousand have already been described, and ten thousand probably yet remain to be added to the number!

PLATE DCVI.

ZIERIA SMITHII.

_Smithian Zieria._

CLASS IV. ORDER I.

_TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Four Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX quadripartitus. Petala quatuor. Stamina glabra, glandulis
insidentia. Stylus simplex. Stigma subquadrilobum. Capsulæ quatuor
coalitæ. Semina arillata.

CUP four-parted. Petals four. Chives smooth, sitting on glands.
Pointal simple. Summit generally four-lobed. Fruit of four cohering
capsules. Seeds covered with an arillus.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Empalement magnified.
2. Chives and pointal.
3. A chive magnified.
4. The same shown from the outer side.
5. Empalement, seed-bud, and pointal magnified.

* * * * *

The Zieria Smithii is a dwarf warty shrub with opposite branches, and leaves which are composed of three lanceolate leaflets, rough with transparent dots, which probably secrete an oil, as the bruised leaves are very fragrant. A few small scattered hairs are just visible on their upper surface. The panicles of flowers rise from the axils of the leaves, which they often excel in length, and branch in the same opposite manner as the stem, with linear bracts at the divisions. The cups are very short, finely haired and dotted as the leaves. The petals are broad-lanced, pointed, and slightly tinged with purple on the outside. The genus was established by Dr. Smith in the fourth volume of the Linnean Society’s Transactions, and named in memory of his friend Mr. Zier, whom he calls “an indefatigable botanist, but whose labours generally gained celebrity under another name than his own.” Were celebrity only to be gained by real merit, many of the high-sounding names that now swell the trump of fame would, we fear, have far less pretensions than Zier. The Zieria Smithii was communicated last April by A. B. Lambert, esq. from his collection, and we have seen dried specimens of four other species preserved in his Herbarium, all (like the present) natives of New Holland, and agreeing in their shrubby nature, opposite branches, ternate leaves, and axillary bunches of flowers. None of the species have before been published.

PLATE DCVII.

CLERODENDRUM TOMENTOSUM.

_Downy Clerodendrum._

CLASS XII. ORDER II.

_DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA._ Two Chives longer. Seeds covered.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX campanulatus, quinquefidus. Corolla tubo elongato, limbo
quinquepartito, æquali. Stamina exserta. Germen quadriloculare,
loculis monospermis. Drupa tetrapyrena.

CUP bell-shaped, five-cleft. Tube of the blossom elongated, with
the limb equally five-parted. Stamens longer than the tube.
Seed-bud four-celled, the cells one-seeded. Fruit a dry berry
including four nuts.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

CLERODENDRUM tomentosum, foliis ellipticis acutis integris
calycibusque tomentosis; corymbis congestis.--_Brown. Prodromus
Floræ Novæ Hollandiæ et Insulæ Van Diemen, vol. 1. p. 510._

DOWNY Clerodendrum with elliptic acute entire leaves downy as well
as the cups; corymbs crowded.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Empalement.
2. A blossom spread open.
3. Seed-bud and pointal.
4. A ripe fruit.

* * * * *

The Clerodendrum tomentosum is found naturally growing about Port Jackson and some other parts of the eastern and northern coasts of New Holland, according to Mr. Brown’s Prodromus of the Flora of that country, just published. This long expected and interesting work contains descriptions of about two thousand plants, (of which, scarcely a third part have before been published) in the first volume, and the second is now in the press.

Although the Clerodendrum tomentosum has been in England above ten years, no figure of it has before been given in this country. All the plants which we have seen of it form erect shrubs from four to six feet in height. The time of blossoming is March and April. We have been favoured with specimens in blossom from the botanic garden of the Company of Apothecaries at Chelsea, and with the ripe fruit from Sir Abraham Hume’s collection at Wormley-bury, but are uncertain who first introduced it.

PLATE DCVIII.

CITRUS NOBILIS.

_Mandarin Orange._

CLASS XVIII. ORDER III.

_POLYADELPHIA ICOSANDRIA._ Many Sets of Chives. Threads from the Calyx or Receptacle.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX 5-dendatus. Corolla 5-petala. Stamina 20 in cylindrum passim
connata. Stylus 1. Bacca 9-12-locularis, pulpâ vesiculari.

CUP five-toothed. Petals five. Stamens about twenty, generally
united at the base. Shaft 1. Fruit 9-to 12-celled, the pulp
variously divided.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

CITRUS petiolis sublinearibus, fructu latescente depresso.

CITRUS with nearly linear leafstalks; the fruit broad depressed.

CITRUS nobilis, inermis, ramis adscendentibus: petiolis strictis,
fructu tuberculoso subcompresso.--_Lour. Flor. Cochinchin. 2. p.
569?_

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The empalement.
2. Chives and pointal.
3. The chives spread open, a tip magnified.
4. Seed-bud and pointal.
5. A horizontal section of the fruit.

* * * * *