Page:Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Volume 73 (1847).djvu/64

 4291.

Sooty Anigozanthos.

Nat. Ord.

Gen. Char. (Vide supra, 4180.)

fuliginosa; caule angulato elato superne paniculato, inferne foliisque æquitantibus lineari-acuminatis subfalcatis striatis glaberrimis, spicis paniculatis secundifloris, pedunculis pedicellis parteque inferioris florum pilis plumosis fusco-brunneis fuliginosis, perianthii straminei tomentosi laciniis lanceolato-acuminatis tubum curvatum superantibus, staminum filamentis lacinias æquantibus, antheris apiculatis.

This is one of the few plants, figured in the 'Botanical Magazine', of which no living specimen yet exists in our Gardens. It is here given to show how much it merits cultivation; also because, from its peculiarly dry, or "everlasting" character, it exhibits so much of its beauty in the Herbarium, that we can vouch for the accuracy of the figure, both in form and colour. It is, too, among the rarest of the genus yet found in Australia, and is thus noticed, in conjunction with another species, A. pulcherrima, figured in this work, Tab. 4180, in a letter from Mr. J. Drummond, published in the 'London Journal of Botany', vol. iii. p. 263. "By a ship now about to sail, I send two fine species of Anigozanthos, collected by my son (since killed by the natives), in the vicinity of the Moore River. Of the golden-flowered kind (A. pulcherrima), I gave some account before (vol. i. of Lond. Journ. of Bot. p. 627, 8). The dark-flowering one, of which but two specimens have ever been found in bloom, is a real mourning flower; the upper portions of its stem, and lower portion of the corolla being covered, as it were, with black velvet: the corolla is deeply cleft, and expands about two inches. The species is not allied to any other yet discovered in the Swan River Settlement." The flower alone, independent of the curious sooty tomentum of the upper part of the plant, is indeed quite sufficient to distinguish this species; being much deeper cleft, with far larger and longer laciniæ, and longer filaments to the