Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 87/5286 Verticordia nitens

5286.

Glistening verticordia.

Nat. Ord. Trib. 1., De Cand

Gen. Char. Flos ante evolutionem bracteis 2 liberis concretisve involucriformi- bus cinctus. Calycis lobi in lobulos 5-7 palmatipartiti. Petala 5. Stamina 20, quorum 10 sterilia ligulæformia, 10 alterna fertilia, inter se æqualia. Stylus fili- formis, exsertus. Stigma barbato-plumosum. Ovarium uniloculare, ovula 5-6 centro adtixa erecta includens. Fructus 1-spermus. Semen globosum.-Frutices Australasici, Pileanthi facie. Folia opposita, lineari-subtriquetra. Flores lon- giuscule pedicellati, ex aillis supremis orti, in corymbos terminales dispositi. De Cand.

nitens; corymbo composito multifloro condensato, tubo calycis turbinato glabro, lobis palmato-9-fidis, lobulis pinnato-plumulosis, petalis subeartilagineis ovatis margine superiori inciso-fimbriatis, staminodiis line- ari-subulatis integerrimis, connectivo in galeam cristatam antherae imminen- tem extenso, stylo incluso imberbi, bracteolis muticis caducis, foliis filiformi- teretibus oblique mucronatis patulis. Shau.

nitens.. Schauer, Monograph. Myrtac. Xerocarpic. p. 71. t. 4 B. f. 1-5.

nitens. Lindl. in Bot. Mag. Comp. v. 2. p. 357; and in App. to the Bot. Reg. t. 1.

It is now more than twenty years since a figure of this plant, made from a dried specimen sent from Western Australia by Cap- tain James Mangles, appeared in Dr. Lindley's 'Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Botany,' and was there described as " the magnificent Chrysorrhoë nitens, whose yellow flowers, of metallic lustre, form masses of golden stars some feet in dia- meter." Ever since, it has been the desire of nurserymen and others engaged in horticulture, to import this lovely plant; but, though seeds have been repeatedly sent, and to our garden amongst others, either they have not germinated, or died off before the flowering-time. At length the Messrs. Veitch, of the Exeter and Chelsea Nurseries, have succeeded in rearing and flowering this plant, in August, 1861, not, indeed, in the per- 1 1861. -- 2 fection to which it attains in its native country; and we are in- debted to them for the specimen here figured. A twiggy shrub, very much branched, with opposite branches; three to four feet high, corymbose at the top, so thick as to form, in its native country, a spreading mass of golden- yellow flowers, some feet in diameter: these flowers retain their colour and brilliancy when dry. Leaves opposite or quaternate, linear-filiform, obtuse, about an inch long. Pedicels slender, in- crassated a little upwards, above which, at the setting-on of the calyx-tube, is a scar, whence two, cucullate, dotted bracts have fallen. Calyx, with the tube turbinate: the limb of five lobes, digitately divided into five or six or more, linear, long-ciliated segments. Petals five, broad, ciliate, dotted. Stamens twenty; ten sterile, short, and thread-like; ten perfect, and twice as long. Anther very peculiar, two-celled, large, ovate, rostrate; at the base are two globose cells; these have a larger, cucullate, fleshy connectivum, which looks like a calyptra. Ovary one-celled, with two ovules: style from the centre of a depressed disk: stigma a mere point.

Fig. 1. Leaf, with a small portion of a branch. 2. Bud, with its deciduous bracteas. 3. Bud, from which the bracts have fallen. 4. Fully expanded flower. 5. Calyx-lobe. 6. Petal. 7. Ovary, cut through vertically, with the style and portion of the stamens. 8. Perfect anther:-all more or less magnifed.

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