Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 73/4317

4317.

Thistle-like Dryandra ; narrow-leaved variety.

Nat. Ord.

Gen. Char. Perianthium 4-partitum v. 4-fidum. Stamina apicibus concavis laciniarum immersa. Squamulae hypogynæ 4. Ovarium biloculare, loculis monospermis. Folliculus ligneus: dissepimento libero, bifido. Receptaculum commune planum, floribus indeterminatim confertis : paleis angustis, raro nullis. Involucrum commune imbricatum.- Frutices plerumque humiles. Rami dum adsint sparsi v. umbellati. Folia sparsa, pinnatiida v. incisa, plante juveniliz conformia. Involucra solitaria, terminalia, raro lateralia, sessilia, foliis confertis, interioribus quandoque nanis obvallata, hemisphærica, bracteis adpressis, in qui- busdam apice appendiculatis. Stylus sæpe perianthio vix longior. Br.

carduacea; ramis pubescentibus, foliis lanceolatis remote sinuato- spinoso-dentatis versus basin nunc spinoso-pinnatifidis, supra glabris subtus niveo-tomentosis, involucri glabri (floribus triplo minoris) foliolis arcte imbricatis erectis subulatis exterioribus latioribus nunc basin versus spinosis interioribus longioribus apice ciliatis, perianthiis sericeis, stylo basi glabro, stigmate parvo oblongo obtuso. carduacea. Lindl. Swan River Bot. p. xxxiii. Meissn. in Pl. Preiss. p. 591. β. angustifolia; foliis angustioribus.

A Swan River species of Dryandra, discovered by Mr. Drum- mond, and reared in the Royal Gardens of Kew from seeds sent by that indefatigable and most successful botanist. Our living plants in the Proteaceous House only differ from dried ones in having narrower leaves. It flowers in the spring months. Our Plants are three feet high, erect, much branched; the branches terete, the young ones downy. Leaves scattered, rather distant, sessile, lanceolate, in our variety linear-lanceolate, spreading and recurved, harsh and rigid, remotely sinuato- dentate, the teeth broad, decurrent, tipped with a sharp spine or mucro, and the leaf terminated by the same: the base is some- times entire, sometimes almost pinnatifid with rather long spinous teeth: the upper surface is indistinctly veined, dark green, glabrous, the underside clothed with compact white down. The capitula terminate short branches, and are surrounded, as it were,

-- by a rosule of spreading leaves. Involucre of many closely-imbri- cated, mostly subulate scales, the outer ones shorter and broader, and sometimes spinous at the margin; the inner ones longer and narrower and ciliated at the tips. Florets numerous, the segments of the perianth linear-spathulate, clothed with yellowish silky hairs. Anthers sunk in the hollow of the spathulate apex. Style longer than the flower, tipped with a rather small cylindrical glabrous stigma.

Fig. 1. Floret:-magnified.

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