Page:Appendix to the first twenty-three volumes of Edwards's Botanical Register.djvu/49

 Rh entire leaves, and rather handsome violet and white flowers on long erect peduncles, called by Endlicher Pigea glauca; and another downy small blunt-leaved species with white flowers, probably referable to the same genus.

Many Dilleniaceous plants occur, together with two species of Clematis, a Ranunculus (Colonorum, Endl.), and several Apiaceæ of singular but not beautiful forms; there is also Pelargonium littorale, an uninteresting species figured in Hugel's Archiv (t. 5), an Acæna, two Plantagos, a Myriophyllum, and a couple of Boraginaceous plants, resembling Myosotis. To these must be added the singular genus Diplopeltis, of which a plate and full account are given in the Botanical Register for 1839, t. 69.

Nuytsia floribunda (Tab. IV.), a beautiful shrub, with very large thyrses of bright orange-coloured flowers, has already been mentioned (p. iv). It is a singular instance of a plant belonging to the parasitical order growing upon the ground. In a manuscript note, communicated to me by Mr. Allan Cunningham, it is stated to flower in the summer months (December and January), and such is the abundance of the orange-coloured blossoms, that the Colonists at King George's Sound compare it to a tree on fire; hence it has gained the name of "Fire tree." A second species (N. ligustrina, A. C.) was found by Mr. Cunningham in 1817 in the more arid parts of the Blue Mountains west from Port Jackson; he tells me it forms a very bushy shrub, three feet high, and flowers usually in the spring of the Colony (October). The only other species of the same order, yet found, is a species of Loranthus, growing parasitically upon the "Black Wattle."

Of there are only three of any interest for their beauty, and we already possess them in our gardens. L. heterophylla and ramosa, the latter a most variable plant, are now common; but the third, Isotoma Brownii, is extremely rare, although its great beauty would render it a most ornamental plant. The figure of it under the name of Lobelia hypocrateriformis in the Botanical Magazine, fig. 3075, was taken from a starved specimen, and gives no idea of its appearance. In its native state the stem is as thick as a swan's quill, one and a half to two feet high, and in one of my specimens has above forty flowers all open at once; the colour in the Botanical Magazine, viz. a rich violet