Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 63/3513

[ 3513 ]

Class and Order.

(Nat. Ord. - )

Generic Character.

Perianthium quadripartitum v. quadrifidum. Stamina apicibus concavis laciniarum immersa. Squamulæ hypo- gonæ 4. Ovarium uniloculare biovulatum. Ovula post fœcundationem cohærentia. Folliculus ligneus.Disepimentum ligneum semibifidum fructûs maturi omninò simile. Receptaculum commune planum, floribus indeterminatim confertis; paleis angustis, rarò nullis. Involucrum commune imbricatum.–Frutices plerumque humiles. Rami dum adsint sparsi vel umbellati. Folia sparsa, pinnatifida v. in- cisa, plantæ juvenilis conformia. Involucra solitaria, termi- nalia, rarò lateralia, sessilia, foliis confertis, interioribus quandoque nanis obvallata, hemisphærica, bracteis adpressis, in quibusdam apice appendiculatis. Stylus sæpè perianthio vix longior. Br.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

tenuifolia; foliis elongato-linearibus pinnatifidis subtruncatis subtùs niveis basi attenuatâ integerrimâ petioliformi: lobis triangularibus decurrentibus divari- catis margine recurvis, involucro longitudine florum: bracteis tomentosis: exterioribus ovato-lanceolatis, pe- rianthio stylum subæquante: unguibus basi lanatis suprà cauleque glabris; laminis subsericeis. Br. in Linn. Trans. 10. p. 215. ejusd. Prodr. 1 p. 398. Röm. et Schult. Syst. Veget. 3. p. 447.



A native of barren heaths on the shores of King George's Sound, where it forms rather a dense bush, flowering in the
 * month

-- month of January. In our conservatories, where, accord- ing to Hortus Kewensis, it has been an inhabitant since the year 1803, it usually puts forth its oval heads of flowers in March; and continuing its blossoms during the two suc- ceeding months, is a most desirable plant for greenhouse cultivation among other compatriots in our possession from the sterile shores of South-western Australia–a locality, so desert-like in aspect, yet so rich in the rarer and more diversiformed species of the great and splendid family to which our plant belongs. Beyond its remarkable habit, and the density of its extremely attenuated foliage, it holds out other recommendations to the care of the botanic culti- vator; namely, its freedom of growth, and the readiness with which well-ripened cuttings take root. Our thanks are again due to our liberal friend, Mr., for the spe- cimen furnished us last spring, by which, the means of publishing the first figure of so interesting a plant, has been afforded us.

A robust shrub, usually about three feet high, very much branched; branches smooth, densely clothed with leaves, spreading, often pendent. Leaves very linear, six to eight inches long, pinnatifid, truncated at the apex, smooth and dark green on the upper side, clothed with a white tomentum beneath, very attentuated and entire at the base: lobes alternate, triangular, decurrent, spreading, apex acute and uncinated, the margins recurved. Involucre terminal, solitary, oval, formed of numerous, imbricated bractes; the outer ones ovate, acute, inner oblong and bluntish, ciliated, and clothed with a thin adpressed tomentum. Receptacle chaffy. Flowers numerous, bright-brown, included within the involucre. Perianth deeply divided into four parts; each segment very linear, thinly clothed with spreading, white hairs towards the claws, which are themselves very woolly, base, however, quite smooth. Lamina slightly silky. Stamens four, inserted in the concave laminæ. An- thers linear, apiculated, shorter than the concavities in which they repose. Style smooth, terete, enlarged somewhat at the base, and angular, the length of the perianth. Stigma simple. Hypogynous scales four, each lancelolate, and attenuate.

We know not that we can do better in occupying another page, than by giving publication to a note furnished us by, regarding another subject of the
 * highly

-- highly interesting Order of the plant here figured; namely, a species of, of goodly arborescent stature, and moreover, the inhabitant of a country, in which the Genus has never been supposed to exist.

It may be premised, that as far as the Botany of the Islands of New Zealand has been investigated, from the days of Sir and Dr.  in the first voyage of our great circumnavigator, down to the present period, Botanists have been made acquainted with but a solitary example of the family, existing on those Islands. In that individual, truly, the Order has there, a very noble representive, viz. excelsa, a large tree, often to be seen from sixty to eighty feet in height, in the drier forests. This observation of the bare existance of an Order on those Islands, so abundant in the neighbouring continent of Australia, is more remarkable, since in the southern latitudes of this latter vast country, (in which is included Van Diemen's Land,) and in the same parallels in South America, which also intersect New Zealand,  as limited by Mr , and   of the same very eminent botanist, furnish several species; which, affect- ing as they do cool regions, and rather humid localities, might reasonably be expected to hold a standing also, on the latter intermediate Islands. Neither the one Genus, nor the other, have yet been discovered there, but a species of –a Genus hitherto limited in Geographic range to New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, was observed at Wangaroa, in 1826, and may be this defined:–

P. Toru; foliis elongato-lanceoatis acutis basi attenuatis strictis sub- falcatisve obsoletè trinervibus utrinque glabris nitidis, racemis axillaribus lateralibusve multifloris, pedunculis perianthiisque tomento ferrugineo tectis, ovariis glabris dispermis epedicellatis, caule arborescenti, cortice lævi.

Incolis Toru audit, unde nomen triviale.

In Novæ Zelandiæ insula septentrionali: prope sinum Bay of Islands dictum; et in montosis sylvaticis viciniâ oppidulum Wangaroa, (altitudine supra oceanum 1000 circiter pedun); nec non in sylva primæva, (" Great Forest" dicta) versus flumen Hokianga; alibique inter pagulos Indicos Wytangy et Keri-Keri, in nemoribus.

Lecta cum fructibus immaturis mense Novembri, et verosimiliter in mensibus Septembri, Octobrique, florens. 1826. ''All. Cunn.'' 1833. b. Rich. Cunningham.

Arbor sempervirens, viginti ad quadraginta pedes alta, potiùs gracilis, admodum venusta, et in habitu omninò aliquot specierum Acaciarum aphyllarum; trunco erecto ad basin diametro 6-uncias æquante, cortice
 * lævi,

-- lævi, sursum ramosissimo. Ramuli patentes, glabri, rugosi, cinerco- atri, lapsu foliorum cicatricibus prominentibus notati. Folia alterna, versùs apices ramulorum confertiora, elongata, coriacea, valdè glabra, suprà nitidissima, venosa, sæpè sex uncias longa, et semunciam lata. Racemi plerumque axillares, erecti, multiflori tomento rubiginoso tecti: Flores (in specimine immaturi et nondum aperti) unibracteati. Ova- rium glabrum, dispermum, sessile, v. epedicellatum. Glandulæ hypo- gynæ 4, brevissimæ. Stigma depresso-capitatum. Drupa baccata, putamine biloculari.

Oas. Affinis P. articulato, et inter hanc et P. longifoliam fere media. Folia longiora, angustiora quàm in P. articulato, perianthiaque tomen- tosa. Inflorescentia P. longifoliæ, a qua differt, foliis latioribus, ovariis- que sessilibus. A. C.