Part 110

MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. Threads united. Many Chives.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX. Perianthium duplex; exterius triphyllum, angustius; foliolis cordatis, acutis, persistentibus; interius monophyllum, semiquinquefidum, majus, latius, persistens.

COROLLA. Petala quinque, obcordata, præmorsa, plana, tubo staminum basi affixa.

STAMINA. Filamenta numerosa, inferne coalita in tubum, in hujus apice et superficie secedentia et libera. Antheræ reniformes.

PISTILLUM. Germen orbiculatum. Stylus cylindraceus, brevis. Stigmata plurima, setosa, longitudine styli.

PERICARPIUM. Capsula subrotunda, composita e loculamentis pluribus, (tot quot stigmata) bivalvibus, virticillatim inarticulatis circum receptaculum columnare, tandem dilabentibus.

SEMINA solitaria, rarius duo seu tria, reniformia.

EMPALEMENT. Cup double; the outer three-leaved, narrower; leaflets heart-shaped, sharp, and remaining; the inner one-leaf, half five-cleft, larger, broader, and remaining.

BLOSSOM. Five petals; inversely heart-shaped, appearing bit at the ends, flat, fixed to the tube of the chives at the base.

CHIVES. Threads numerous, united below into a tube, at its top and surface parted and loose. Tips kidney-shaped.

POINTAL. Seed-bud orbicular. Shaft cylindrical and short. Summits many, bristle-shaped, the length of the shaft.

SEED-VESSEL. Capsule roundish, composed of many cells (as many as there are tips) two-valved, forming a whorl round a columnar receptacle not jointed, at length falling off.

SEEDS solitary, seldom two or three, kidney-shaped.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Malva foliis cuneiformibus, inequaliter incisolobatis; petalis reflexis.

Mallow with wedge-shaped leaves, unequally gashed into lobes; petals reflexed.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement, the inner and outer Cup separated from the Blossom. 2. A Blossom spread open. 3. The Chives and Pointal. 4. The Chives, the connecting tube cut open. 5. The Seed-bud, Shaft and Summit, magnified.

Some light doubts, at first, arose in our minds, that this plant might be M. virgata, the 15th in Professor Martyn’s new arrangement of Miller’s Dictionary, vide art. Malva. But, from the extraordinary length of the branches of M. virgata, there described to be six feet and a half long, and only the thickness of a wheat straw at the base! with dark purple flowers; we cannot but consider this, which never rises to more than a foot and a half or two feet in the stem, with white flowers, excepting a small streak of red at the base of the petals, as a distinct and new species. It is a native of the Cape, and was received in seeds, from thence, in the year 1794. As a hardy green-house plant it is most ornamental; the blossoms, which are quite reflexed when full blown, being produced in succession from March till November, upon every part of the plant. It is increased by cuttings made in May, and placed under a hand-glass on a shady border. Light loam with a small mixture of peat, it the best soil to make it flourish.

PLATE CXXXVI.

GERANIUM CRASSIFOLIUM.

Thick-leaved Geranium.

CLASS XVI. ORDER IV. of Suppl. System. Veg. 1781.

MONADELPHIA DECANDRIA. Threads united. Ten Chives.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

MONOGYNA. Stigmata 5. Fructus rostratus, penta-coccus.

ONE POINTAL. Five summits. Fruit furnished with long awns, five dry berries.