Part 21

The Echium Grandiflorum is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, was sent from thence by Mr. F. Masson to the Royal Gardens at Kew, about the year 1791. The superior beauty of this species to the rest of its congenors makes it considered as a valuable greenhouse plant, although its intrinsic merit is sufficient to ensure it that character; the rich green of its foliage, contrasted to the colour of the blossoms, gives to each a singular brilliancy. It is rather a tender greenhouse plant, grows about two feet high, and becomes naked at the lower part of the stem; is with difficulty propagated by cuttings, seldom perfecting its seeds; thrives best in rich earth, and flowers in April and May. The drawing was made from a plant in the collection of the Marquis of Blandford, Bill-hill, Berks.

PLATE XXI.

VEREIA CRENATA.

Scolloped-leaf Vereia.

CLASS VIII. ORDER IV.

OCTANDRIA TETRAGYNIA. Eight Chives. Four Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX. Perianthium tetraphyllum, foliolis lanceolatis, concavis, erectis, acutis, persistentibus.

COROLLA monopetala, ventricosa; limbus patens, revolutus quadripartitus; laciniis ovatis, acuminatis.

Nectaria quatuor; singulum squamula debilia, minima, singulo germini ad basin extrorsum inserta.

STAMINA. Filamenta octo, brevia, quorum quatuor medio, quatuor vero ad basin corollæ adnatæ. Antheræ subrotundæ simplices.

PISTILLUM. Germina quatuor, oblonga, definentia in stylos subulatos. Stigmata obtusa.

PERICARPIUM. Capsulæ quatuor, ovatæ acuminatæ, rectæ, trigonæ, longitudinaliter sutura introrsum dehiscentes.

SEMINA plurima minima.

EMPALEMENT. Cup four leaved, which are lance-shaped, concave, upright, sharp-pointed, and permanent.

BLOSSOM of one leaf, big bellied; border spreading, rolled back, and divided into four egg-shaped, pointed segments.

Honey-cups four, each consisting of a small slight scale, fixed on the outside the base of each seed-bud.

CHIVES. Eight short threads, four of which are fixed to the middle, and four to the base of the blossom. Tips nearly round, and simple.

POINTAL. Four seed-buds, oblong, ending in awl-shaped shafts. Summits blunt.

SEED-VESSEL. Four capsules, egg-shaped, tapering, upright and three sided, opening inwards along the seam.

SEEDS many, very small.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Vereia, foliis oppositis, crenatis, patentibus; racemis longissimis laxis; floribus luteis.

Vereia, with opposite, scolloped, spreading leaves; very long loose spikes, and yellow flowers.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement, (natural size.)

2. A Blossom cut open to shew the situation of the Chives.

3. The Seed-vessel, Shafts, and Summits, with the scales of the Honey-cups, as they stand in the blossom, (magnified.)