blossoms, and delicate foliage, was brought to the Royal Gardens at Kew
from India by Mrs. Norman, about the year 1769. It is a plant of quick
growth, and blossoms freely, but has never produced any pods in this
country. The only figure of it we have seen is that by Reinagle in Dr.
Thornton’s Illustration of the System of Linnæus. A plate however was
finished for L’Heritier, who first described it; but his death prevented
its publication. The stamens (as in many other Mimosas) are united near
the base. The blossoms open in succession from the bottom of the bunch
upwards, and continue great part of the summer. The leaves are
deciduous. The specimen was communicated from Boyton by A. B. Lambert,
esq. in August.
[Illustration]
PLATE DXCIII.
CROTALARIA TETRAGONA.
_Four-sided Crotalaria._
CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.
_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Stamens.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
LEGUMEN pedicellatum, turgidum. Stamina omnia connexa.
POD on a stalk, swollen. Stamens all connected.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
CROTALARIA caule tetragono, strigoso; petiolis brevibus, foliis
oblongo-lanceolatis, acuminatis; stipulis caulem amplexantibus.
CROTALARIA with the stem 4-sided, with flat pressed hairs: short
footstalks: leaves oblong-lanced, and pointed: stipules embracing
the stem.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The keel.
2. The chives and pointal.
3. Seed-bud and pointal.
* * * * *
This new and very ornamental species is remarkable for having the under
lip of the calyx often undivided, and every part of the plant up to the
blossom covered with shining close-pressed hairs: nor are they entirely
wanting on the blossom; on the lower part of the keel they are very
conspicuous, hanging downwards like a little beard. A groove with a
fringe on each side runs also along the upper side of the style towards
the summit. Two thread-shaped silky stipules rise at the base of every
leaf-stalk, and, being reflected backwards, closely embrace the stem. A
solitary stipule also rises at the base of each flower-stalk, and two
where it unites with the calyx: but these, from their singular
situation, must perhaps be considered as bracteæ.
We were favoured with the specimens in November from Lord Valentia’s
gardens at Arley, along with the Plectranthus barbata. His Lordship
received the seeds last year from Dr. Roxburgh in India, by the name of
Crotalaria tetragona. The plant appears to be shrubby. No account of the
species has before been published. Its place in the genus is near to the
Crotalaria juncea figured in our sixth volume.
[Illustration]
PLATE DXCIV.
PLECTRANTHUS BARBATUS.
_Bearded Plectranthus._
CLASS XIV. ORDER I.
_DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA._ Four unequal Stamens. Naked Seeds.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX laciniâ summâ majore. Corolla resupinata, ringens; tubo
sursùm gibbo vel calcarato.
CUP with the upper division largest. Blossom lying on its back,
gaping; tube with a spur above or swelled out.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
PLECTRANTHUS racemis bracteatis, bracteis deciduis; foliis ovatis,
crenatis, pubescentibus, rugosis, per petioles decurrentibus:
corollæ labio superiore emarginato brevissimo; inferiore subovato,
concavo, hirsuto.
PLECTRANTHUS with bracts to the bunches, bracts falling off: the
leaves oval, scolloped, downy and wrinkled, running down the
footstalks; the upper lip of the blossom short, and slightly
notched; the lower nearly ovate, compressed and hairy.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. A blossom with the segments cut off to expose the chives.
3. The seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.
* * * * *
The stem of Plectranthus is four-sided with blunt corners, and woolly.
The leaves are fleshy, minutely dotted on both sides, and border their
footstalks down to the stem. The flower-stalks, the lower part of the
cups, and under lip of the blossom, are set with stiff clear bristles.
The tube of the blossom is without a spur, and swelled on the upper
side. Every part of the plant has a powerful fragrance. The specimens
were communicated in November by Mr. Giddings, gardener to Lord Valentia
at Arley; with a letter stating, that he raised the plants from
Abyssinian seeds sent home by his Lordship about four years ago, and
that they grow at Arley to about two feet in height, and thrive with the
common treatment of stove plants.
The first species known of this genus, Plectranthus punctatus, the
Ocymum punctatum of Linnæus, was also brought from Abyssinia by the
celebrated Bruce.
[Illustration]
PLATE DXCV.
PANAX FRUTICOSUM.
_Shrubby Panax._
CLASS XXIII. ORDER II.
_POLYGAMIA DIŒCIA._ Flowers Male, Female, and Hermaphrodite on different
Plants.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
HERMAPHRODITUS. Umbella. Calyx 5-dentatus, superus. Corolla
5-petala. Stamina 5. Styli 2 vel 3, sæpe cohærentes. Bacca 2-vel
3-sperma, infera.
HERMAPHRODITE. An umbel. Cup 5-toothed, above. Blossom 5-petalled.
Stamens 5. Shafts 2 or 3, sometimes cohering. Berry 2-or 3-seeded,
below.
The male or female flowers we have never seen.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
PANAX foliis supradecompositis, dentato-ciliatis; caule fruticoso.
_Willd. Sp. Pl._
PANAX with leaves more than doubly compound, ciliated with little
teeth; the stem shrubby.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. Empalement, chives, and pointals.
2. The pointals.
3. The plant in miniature.
* * * * *
On examining the flowers of this curious and rare species of Panax, we
were a little startled to find how widely they differed from the
character of the genus; being trigynous, and the berry three-seeded.
Professor Jacquin has also observed the same variation in the flowers of
P. aculeatum (see his Icones, tab. 634); and fifty years ago Trew
observed and delineated the same number of styles in Panax trifolium,
one of the original species upon which the genus was established. Nor
had this escaped the scrutinizing eye of that profound observer of
nature Bernard Jussieu. From these authorities, therefore, in consonance
with our own observations, we have enlarged the character of the genus
to include the species. Panax fruticosum, as we learn from Rumphius’s
Herbarium Amboinense, vol. iv. p. 78 and 79, rises to between five and
six feet in height, with a stem as thick as a man’s arm, and grows
naturally in the Island of Ternate, where it is also much cultivated by
the natives for food, medicine, and œconomy; being planted to separate
the areas of their gardens and mark the boundaries of their fields. The
boiled leaves are eaten as greens, and a decoction both of the leaves
and root is used successfully in nephritic diseases, for which they also
sometimes prescribe the roots to be eaten raw. The fame of the plant as
a powerful diuretic is also great in Amboyna; where, as well as in
Ternate, it is commonly planted both for ornament and use.
Labillardiere, the French botanist, who accompanied the expedition that
sailed in quest of the unfortunate Lapeyrouse, informs us (in his
account of the voyage) that when at Amboyna he found this plant
encircling the tomb of the venerable Rumphius, its first described.
Nature he loved; with her he spent his hours:
The grateful goddess wreathes his tomb with flowers!
The famous _Gin-seng_, to which the Chinese attribute such extraordinary
virtues, and which, as Osbeck informs us, was commonly sold in their
shops in 1751 (see his Travels, English edit. p. 222) for from 30 to 40
times its weight in silver, and which one of their Emperors, 40 years
before that, sent 10,000 Tartars in quest of at once, is said by that
author to be a species of Panax; but the plant is yet unknown in Europe.
Panax fruticosum, we are informed, was introduced to this country about
the year 1800, and requires to be kept in the hot-house. The specimen
was communicated from Boyton by A. B. Lambert, esq.
[Illustration]
PLATE DXCVI.
LAURUS CINNAMOMUM.
_Cinnamon Tree._
CLASS IX. ORDER I. OR CLASS XXII. ORDER VII.
_ENNEANDRIA MONOGYNIA_, or _DIŒCIA POLYANDRIA_. Nine Stamens. One
Style, or Male and Female Flowers on different Plants. Stamens more
than Seven.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX nullus. Corolla 6-partita, glandulis tribus germen
cingentibus. Filamenta interiora glandulifera. Drupa 1-sperma.
CUP none. Blossom 6-parted. Glands three, surrounding the germen.
Inner filaments bearing glands. Berry dry, one-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
LAURUS foliis trinerviis ovato-oblongis, nervis versus apicem
evanescentibus. _Willdenow, Sp. Pl. vol. 2. p. 477._
LEAVES three nerved, oval-oblong, nerves vanishing towards the
point of the leaf.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower spread open, shown from the outer side.
2. The same shown from the inner side.
3. The pointal.
* * * * *
For the first tolerable figure of the Cinnamon tree we are indebted to
Dr. Hermann, Professor of Botany at Leyden who had also the honour of
introducing it to Europe, having brought living plants with him, on his
return from Ceylon, which vegetated in the Leyden Academy’s garden, and
in the gardens of Mynheers Benting and Beverning between two and three
years, until a severe winter destroyed them. See his Catalogue of the
Plants in the Leyden Garden (Horti Academici Lugduno-Batavi Catalogus),
page 130, plates 665 and 666. This fact is the more curious, as Linnæus,
describing the Cinnamon from dried specimens in his noble patron
Clifford’s collection, fifty years after, speaks of it as a plant
forbidden to our shores; which Europe had never seen alive, and could
hardly hope to see, or to retain even if it could be procured.
The Cinnamon was first cultivated in England by Mr. Miller in the
Apothecaries’ garden at Chelsea about the year 1768; who probably
received it from Holland, the Spice plantations at that time being
entirely in the hands of the Dutch. No figure of it has before been
published in this country, nor any account of its flowering. It grows
naturally in the Island of Ceylon, from whence the vast quantity
annually imported into Europe is supplied. The following method of
procuring and preparing the bark is abridged from Thunberg’s Travels.
Proper trees being selected, that is, those that are neither too young
nor too old, the branches of three years growth are cut off with a
pruning-knife, and their green outer bark scraped off with a crooked
knife. The remaining bark is then ripped up lengthwise and peeled off
and the smaller pieces being drawn into the larger, they are laid in the
sun to dry. After being sufficiently dried, they are tied up in bundles
of about 30 pounds weight each, and brought to the Company’s
storehouses, where inspectors appointed for that purpose examine every
bundle by tasting of it; and on its being approved of, it is tied in
bundles of about 85 pounds weight each, which are then sewed into double
woollen sacks, over which black pepper is strewed to attract any
remaining moisture, and in this state shipped for Europe. From the dust
and fragments remaining in the warehouses the extremely valuable and
rare oil of Cinnamon is distilled. An oil is also distilled from the
leaves, another from the fruit, and a fourth from the bark of the root.
Cinnamon is also found wild in the woods of Martinico, according to
Professor Jacquin; but the Ceylon Cinnamon is always considered the
best.
We are informed by our friend Mr. Anderson, that a Cinnamon tree in the
garden of the Bishop of Winchester at Farnham Castle (perhaps the finest
in England) has for many years blossomed and ripened its fruit annually,
and that great numbers of young trees have been raised from the fruit,
which have far surpassed for healthiness and hardiness the plants
commonly obtained from layers, or those imported; and which leads us to
hope that the Cinnamon trees may soon become more common and less
difficult of cultivation: and his lordship’s great success with it will,
we hope, serve to stimulate others. We have also seen a drawing in Mr.
Lambert’s collection, taken in the Bishop of Durham’s garden at
Mongewell, where it flowered, as we are informed by his lordship, in
February 1796.
The Cinnamon tree requires to be kept in the bark-bed in the stove, and
is propagated by cuttings and layers.
Our drawing was made in the month of February at J. Knight’s nursery,
King’s Road, from a fine plant upwards of three feet high.
[Illustration]
PLATE DCXVII.
TROPÆOLUM PEREGRINUM.
_The Little Bird Plant._
CLASS VIII. ORDER I.
_OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Eight Stamens. One Style.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX monophyllus, calcaratus, quinquefidus. Petala duo ad quinque.
Stigma trifidum, seu stigmata tria. Drupæ tres, siccæ, et
monospermæ.
CUP of one leaf with a spur five-cleft. Petals two to five. Summits
three, or summit three-cleft. Berries three, dry, and one-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
TROPÆOLUM petalis serrato-incisis, duobus maximis, tribus minimis.
_Jacq. Hort. Schœnb. 1. p. 51. tab. 98._
TROPÆOLUM with the petals tooth-gashed, two much larger than the
rest; three very small.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. Chives and pointal.
2. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.
* * * * *
The Tropæolum peregrinum grows naturally in Peru, and was gathered wild
by the French naturalist Feuillée near the town of Lima. The native
name, according to that author, is Malla; the Spaniards call it
Paxarito, which signifies a little bird; from the resemblance the
expanded blossoms have to little humming-birds flying. Attaching itself
by the long footstalks of the leaves to the branches, the plant often
ascends to the very summits of trees in its native soil; and Professor
Jacquin, director of the Emperor of Germany’s gardens at Schœnbrunn,
informs us (in the work above quoted) that it grew there in the open
ground to twenty-six feet in length, with a stem of a finger’s
thickness, and a great many branches, but produced no flowers until
transplanted into the green-house. A. B. Lambert, esq. who communicated
the specimen from his gardens at Boyton last November, informs us that
he cultivated it in a three-light melon-frame, which it completely
filled, branching in all directions, and producing almost innumerable
blossoms. The seeds but rarely ripen in this country, and are generally
imported from Spain or Portugal. The plant, however, may be propagated
by cuttings. Besides the five species of Tropæolum enumerated in the
edition of the Species Plantarum by Willdenow, and the new species in
our last volume (T. pennatum), three more species are described and
figured in the Flora Peruviana of Ruiz and Pavon; some of which, and
others of the many beautiful flowers of that country, the great
intercourse now carried on with South America gives us to hope that we
may soon see. One of the species in the Flora Peruviana having only two
petals, has obliged us to make a little alteration in the generic
character.
[Illustration]
PLATE DXCVIII.
BÆCKIA VIRGATA.
_Twiggy Bæckia._
CLASS VIII. ORDER I.
_OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Eight Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-petala. Capsula 3-seu 4-locularis,
polysperma, calyce tecta.
CUP 5-toothed. Blossom of 5 petals. Fruit 3-or 4-celled,
many-seeded, covered by the cup.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
BÆCKIA foliis lineari-lanceolatis pellucido-punctatis, pedunculis
axillaribus umbelliferis.
Leptospermum virgatum. _Forster._
BÆCKIA with linear-lanced leaves with transparent dots; the
flowerstalks axillary, and bearing umbels.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A petal.
2. The chives and pointal.
3. The same shown from the under side.
* * * * *
In the Island of New Caledonia, celebrated by Captain Cook (above all
others) for the courteous, friendly, and honest disposition of the men,
and the inflexible virtue of the females, (see his Second Voyage, vol.
ii. p. 105 to 127.) and whence every day brought them something new in
natural history, this plant with many others was discovered by the two
Forsters, who accompanied him as naturalists, and is published in their
Genera of Plants gathered in the Islands of the South Seas as a species
of Leptospermum. Dr. Smith, however, justly observes, that neither the
number of stamens, the fruit, nor the opposite leaves, agree at all with
that genus, but most naturally with the Linnean genus Bæckia, of which
several species have lately been found in New Holland. The stamens vary
from eight to ten; the germen three-celled, with about sixteen seeds in
each; but how many of these ripen we have had no opportunity of
observing. The leaves are not absolutely without nerves, as described by
Forster; we find them faintly three-nerved in his own specimen, but they
are more conspicuously so after they become dry, particularly on the
under side. In the specimens with which we have been favoured by Mr.
Milne from Fonthill, the leaves are a little smaller than those upon the
original specimen, which may be occasioned by this plant’s being yet so
young, being raised only three years ago in the collection of the
Marquis of Bath. The time of flowering is October. The Leptospermum
virgatum of Willdenow we cannot quote, his descriptions being from two
plants of very different genera jumbled together into one species.
* * * * *
In the 277th Number of The Botanical Magazine the writer,
endeavouring to destroy the authority of the figure of Yucca
gloriosa in The Botanist’s Repository, vol. vii., and establish
that of his own as the first, says that our figure cannot belong to
that plant, in which “the trunk reaches only from six inches to two
feet (Miller says in his Dictionary, from two feet and a half to
three feet!) in height, and where the leaves are quite entire; but
to Y. aloifolia, whose trunk reaches from 6 to 10 feet in height,
and the leaves have a finely crenulate edging.” Our drawing was
taken at Lord Boston’s from a plant only ten feet high, the stem
little more than three, and the leaves not in the least crenated!
The panicle in our figure is also said to be much closer than in
that, with its branches likewise more lax and drooping. With all
these contradictory qualities, however, it very much resembles
Barreliere’s figure of the same, which the writer himself has
quoted, and in which the curvature of the buds, which he holds to
be so extraordinary, is also conspicuous. No less curious is his
objection to the tinge of purple on the flowers. Could it be
possible that he had not seen either the plant that he way
describing or the drawing of it? (See the figure in The Botanical
Magazine.) But we leave the Yuccas to speak for themselves. The
filamentosa he has also complimented with five feet of a stem
(Botanical Magazine, No. 900), and quoted Micham’s authority for
it, although that author expressly says that it is stemless!
[Illustration]
PLATE DXCIX.
CHAMÆROPS HUMILIS.
_Dwarf Fan-Palm._
CLASS XXIII. ORDER II.
_POLYGAMIA DIŒCIA._ Stamens and Pointals on different Plants, with some
perfect Flowers occasionally.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
MASC. Calyx 3-partitus. Corolla 3-petala. Stamina 6.
HERMAPH. Calyx, corolla et stamina ut in masculis. Styli 3. Drupæ
3, monospermæ.
MALES. Cup 3-parted. Blossom 3-petalled. Stamens 6.
HERMAPHRODITES. Cup, blossom and stamens as in the males. Styles 3.
Berries 3, dry, one-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
CHAMÆROPS frondibus palmatis, stipitibus spinosis, spathâ simplici.
_Willd. Sp. Pl. 4. p. 1154._
CHAMÆROPS with palmate boughs, prickly footstalks, and simple
sheaths.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. Empalement and blossom.
2. The same shown from the outer side.
3. The chives.
* * * * *
The Dwarf Fan-Palm is the only species indigenous to Europe, where it
grows naturally in Italy on the coast of Etruria, in the Island of
Sicily, and in Spain in the province of Valencia, where we are informed
by Cavanilles, in his Icones Plantarum, (vol. ii. p. 12.) it is most
commonly found stemless, and in that tract called Desierto de las
Palmas, or the Desert of Palms, with stems rarely exceeding two feet in
height. In the district of Xabea, however, on the coast of the
Mediterranean, he found many with stems fourteen feet high, and one as
high as thirty feet. The same author informs us that the lower part of
the stem, which enters the earth, and the heads of young blossoms before
they burst from the sheath, are eaten by the Spaniards, to whom also the
leaves are of the greatest utility, furnishing them with mats, ropes,
brooms, and baskets, in the manufacture of which boys are principally
employed, and women during the evenings in winter. Many of our fair
countrywomen, we fear, spend their evenings less usefully. Professor
Pontedera, in his Anthologia, published at Padua in 1720, has given
three good plates of the Chamærops and its fructification, taken from a
plant, the stem of which was twelve feet high, growing in the public
garden there. From this author we learn that the young shoots or suckers
from the bottom of the plant (called there cefaglioni) are eaten by the
Italians. The Chamærops also grows spontaneously upon uncultivated hills
on the coast of Barbary, where the lower part of the young stems and the
roots are also eaten by the Moors; and the leaves, after being macerated
in water, made into mats, ropes, baskets, &c., as in Spain. (See
Desfontaines’ Flora Atlantica, vol. iii. p. 473.) Willdenow takes notice
of two varieties of the Chamærops, one of which is nearly stemless, and
the other twenty feet in height; and the former of which is probably
that cultivated in England, as we have never met with any of a large
size, although the plant has been in our gardens since the year 1731;
while that in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, (nearly twenty feet
high,) mentioned by Chevalier Lamarck in the Encyclopédie Méthodique,
seems to be the second variety. Our drawing was taken early in March, in
Malcolm’s Nursery at Kensington, from a male plant about two feet in
height with three fine bunches of male blossoms.
[Illustration]
PLATE DC.
GÆRTNERA RACEMOSA.
_Racemed Gærtnera._
CLASS X. ORDER I.
_DECANDRIA MONO-DI-TRIGYNIA._ Ten Chives. One to Three Pointals.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 5-partitus. Petala 5 lacero-ciliata, inæqualia. Stamina
decem, unicum reliquis longius. Stylus incurvus. Stigma simplex.
Germen triloculare, 3-spermum. Samara inæqualiter quadrialata,
monosperma.
CUP five-parted. Petals five, cut-fringed, unequal. Stamens ten,
one longer than the rest. Style incurved. Summit simple. Seed-bud
of three cells with three seeds. Fruit with four unequal wings,
one-seeded.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. The same shown from the outer side.
3. The chives and pointals.
4. The seed-bud and pointals.
5. The capsule.
* * * * *
This curious and interesting plant, originally considered as a species
of Banisteria by Linnæus, was very properly separated and named in
honour of the celebrated Gærtner by Schreber in his Genera Plantarum;
and Cavanilles nearly about the same time published it in his Ninth
Dissertation, under the name of Molina, in honour of the author of the
Natural History of Chili. Gærtnera however has the right of priority,
and has been continued by Dr. Roxburgh in his Plants of the Coast of
Coromandel, where he has given a figure and description of the plant,
(vol. i. p. 19. tab. 18.) and by Willdenow in his edition of the Species
Plantarum.
On examining the fructification, we have found the plant more closely
allied to Banisteria than has hitherto been suspected, the styles being
commonly two with a rudiment of a third, and the germen three-locular
with a young seed in each cell; but the inequality of the petals and
stamens, the solitary gland on the calyx, and the abortion of the
lateral seeds, furnish abundant distinctions.
From the Coromandel plants above quoted we learn that it is a large
climbing shrub, growing naturally on the Circar mountains in India, and
is commonly cultivated all over that coast on account of the beauty and
fragrance of its flowers, which open there during the rainy season.
According to Linnæus it is also a native of the Island of Ceylon. No
other species of the genus has yet been described. The plant is
certainly a great acquisition to our collections, and was introduced
from India by the late Lady Amelia Hume about the year 1805. Our
specimen was communicated from the collection at Wormley Bury the end of
last March.
[Illustration]
PLATE DCI.
CROTALARIA PULCHRA.
_Fair Crotalaria._
CLASS XVII. ORDER IV.
_DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA._ Two Brotherhoods. Ten Stamens.
GENERIC CHARACTER.