Part 28

Madeira Whortle-berry.

CLASS VIII. ORDER I.

OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Eight Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX. Perianthium minimum, superum, persistens.

COROLLA. Monopetala, campanulata, quadrifida; laciniis revolutis.

STAMINA. Filamenta octo, simplicia. Antheræ bicornes, dorso aristis duabus patentibus instructæ, apice dehiscentes.

PISTILLUM. Germen inferum. Stylus simplex, staminibus longior. Stigma obtusum.

PERICARPIUM. Bacca globosa, umbilicata, quadrilocularis.

SEMINA pauca, parva.

EMPALEMENT. Cup very small, above, and permanent.

BLOSSOM. One petal, bell-shaped, four-cleft; segments rolled back.

CHIVES. Eight threads, simple. Tips with two horns, and furnished with two spreading awns at the back, opening at the points.

POINTAL. Seed-bud beneath. Shaft simple, longer than the chives. Summit blunt.

SEED-VESSEL. A globular berry, with a hollow dimple, and four cells.

SEEDS few, and small.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Vaccinium, floribus racemosis; foliis crenulatis, ovatis, acutis; caule arboreo.

Whortle-berry, with flowers growing in bunches; leaves slightly scollopped, egg-shaped, and pointed; stem woody.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement, Pointal, and Chives; the blossom removed. 2. A Chive (magnified). 3. The Shaft, and its Summit (magnified). 4. A ripe Berry (natural size).

Numerous are the difficulties which occur in arranging plants according to any yet invented system; and although the sexual fails in the fewest instances, yet that is sometimes the case. The plant before us, although in habit, fruit, &c. seemingly perfectly allied to Vaccinium, and, from which characters, it has been placed under that genus, yet we doubt whether if Linnæus had examined the flower himself, (as he has accepted it under the name it here bears, and we have no doubt of its being the plant intended;) he would not have classed it in Octandria; for certainly it has in every instance ten chives, with the border of the blossom of five segments; the threads attached to the blossom. But, as it is the professed intention of this work as little as possible to confuse, by the introduction of new names for plants already known by established, and generally accepted ones; though erroneous from incorrectness, or otherwise, in the author who first published them; we shall attempt an alteration but rarely, and that cautiously, or for very glaring reasons; being thoroughly convinced of the difficulty of retaining only one name for each plant. The Vaccinium Arctostaphyllus is a native of the island of Madeira, where it grows to a considerable height: it has not been many years cultivated in our gardens; having been introduced to us first by Mr. F. Masson about the year 1786. The winters in common of this climate are too severe for it, therefore should be protected, although it will survive a mild one: it is best preserved in a pot, and kept as a greenhouse plant, where it is very ornamental; flowering about the months of July and August; thriving best in light mould, or peat; and is propagated by cuttings, or the seed, which it produces in abundance.

PLATE XXXI.

BORBONIA CORDATA.

Heart-shape leaved Borbonia.

CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.

DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. Threads in two sets. Ten Chives.

GENERIC CHARACTER.