Part 8

DESCRIPTION.

STEM shrubby, upright, a foot and a half high, and very branching; the branches are harsh, upright, and twisted.

LEAVES grow by fours, are of a whitish green, and bent inwards, furrowed beneath, harsh, and slightly sawed at the edge.

FLOWERS grow at the ends of the branches, mostly by fours, in bunches, and nodding; the foot-stalks are long and purple, having three floral leaves.

EMPALEMENT. Cup four-leaved, leaflets egg-shaped, keeled, and pressed to the blossom.

BLOSSOM globular, purple, and squared at the base; the border four-lobed, the segments of which are upright, and equal.

CHIVES. Eight hair-like threads fixed into the receptacle. The tips crested, and within the blossom.

POINTAL. Seed-vessel globular, large, and furrowed; the shaft nearly without the blossom, tapering from the base; the summit four-cornered.

Native of the Cape of Good Hope.

Flowers from April, till July.

REFERENCE.

1. The Empalement, and Blossom.

2. The Empalement magnified.

3. The Chives and Pointal.

4. The Chives detached from the Pointal; one tip magnified.

5. The Pointal and Seed-vessel magnified.

ERICA Banksia.

CHARACTER SPECIFICUS.

ERICA, antheræ muticæ, exsertæ, attenuata in filamenta plana; corolla cylindrica, viridi-lutea; caulis decumbens, sub-spithamæus; folia terna.

DESCRIPTIO.

CAULIS decumbens, rigidus, scaber, sub-spithamæus, ramosissimus; ramulis brevibus.

FOLIA terna, subulata, trigona, acuminata, subtus tenuissime sulcata, supra plana, glabra, profundé viridia; petiolis brevissimis, adpressis.

FLORES in ultimis ramulis, bini vel terni, cernui; pedunculi brevissimi, bracteis nullis.

CALYX. Perianthium duplex, exterius triphyllum, foliolis lato-ovatis, rigidis, carinatis, acuminatis; interius tetraphyllum, foliolis flaccidis, linearibus, longioribus.

COROLLA cylindrica, ad basin parum inflata, viridi-lutea, oris laciniis revolutis.

STAMINA. Filamenta octo linearia, plana, corolla multoties longiora, receptaculo inserta. Antheræ muticæ, exsertæ, nec filamentis distinguendis.

PISTILLUM. Germen sub-ovatum. Stylus filiformis, exsertus. Stigma tetragonum.

Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.