Part 65

BLOSSOM, one petal, wheel-shaped. Tube very short. Border half five-cleft, large, and plaited.

CHIVES. Five threads, awl-shaped, very small, and approaching. Tips upright, and approaching.

POINTAL. Seed-bud roundish. Shaft thread-shaped, hardly longer than the chives. Summit blunt.

SEED-VESSEL. A roundish berry, two-celled, within a large, swelled, close-mouthed, five-sided cup.

SEEDS many, kidney-shaped, and flat.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Physalis, ramosissima, prostrata, hispida; foliis subcarnosis; corollis cæruleis.

Winter Cherry, very branching, trailing, and hairy; leaves nearly fleshy; blossoms blue.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement. 2. A Flower cut open, with the Chives attached. 3. The Pointal (natural size). 4. A ripe Seed-vessel.

This beautiful species of Physalis, as a tender annual, should be sown early in March, on a strong hotbed; and kept, when potted, in the greenhouse, being impatient of cold or wet, and perishes if exposed to either. It is a native of Peru, South America, and has been figured by Professor Jacquin in his Ic. Rar. I. t. 38; likewise by Mons. l’Heritier in his Stirp. Nov. p. 43. t. 22; and was first transmitted to England in the year 1782, by Mons. Thoin, from France. Although it has been cultivated here some years, it is but little known, owing to its great delicacy when young, being very liable to damp off in the hotbed.

PLATE LXXVI.

PROTEA PINIFOLIA.

Pine-leaved Protea.

CLASS IV. ORDER I.

TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Four Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA 4-fida, seu 4-petala. Antheræ lineares, insertæ petalis infra apicem. Calyx proprius nullus. Sem. solitaria.

BLOSSOM four-cleft or of four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the ends. Cup. Proper, none. Seeds solitary.

See PROTEA SPECIOSA. Plate XVII.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Protea floribus simplicibus, racemoso-spicatis, glabris; foliis filiformibus, sparsis, glabris.

Protea with simple flowers, growing in branching spikes, and smooth; leaves thread-shaped, scattered, and smooth.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A Blossom complete. 2. One Petal of the Blossom, (magnified), with its Chive attached. 3. The Pointal and Seed-bud, (magnified). 4. A ripe Seed.

The Pine-leaved Protea from the Cape of Good Hope, is rather a delicate plant; and is subject to be killed, if not kept in the driest, and warmest part of the greenhouse, being very susceptible of damps. It makes a very fine appearance when in bloom, growing to the height of two feet or more upright, and with few branches; every part of the plant, (which is uncommon in this genus,) is quite smooth and shining. This species of Protea is an inhabitant of our gardens, since the year 1780; when it was first introduced by William Forsyth, Esq. of Kensington, but has been rarely seen to flower, as it is found but in few collections; owing to the difficulty of propagating it, by the only possible method in this country, cuttings. The soil it approves most, as do most of the Proteas, is a light loam. The drawing was taken at the Hammersmith nursery, from a plant which flowered there in August this year.

PLATE LXXVII.

PERSOONIA LINEARIS.