[Illustration: N^o. 301]
There are few flowers that do not secrete from some kind of a glandular
substance, honey, or nectar, to a greater or smaller amount; in those of
the present genus, this liquid is particularly abundant, even dropping
from the flowers of the _major_, in considerable quantity; in the
present species it flows not so copiously, but is retained in the lower
part of the blossom, and is of a dark brown colour, an unusual
phenomenon.
There are only two species of this genus described, the _major_ and the
_minor_, both of which are cultivated in our nurseries; the _major_ is
by far the most common, the most hardy, and the most ornamental plant;
its foliage indeed is peculiarly elegant: this species will succeed in
the open border, especially if placed at the foot of a wall with a south
or south-west aspect, taking care to cover the root to a considerable
depth with rotten tan in severe frosts: the _minor_ is always kept in
the greenhouse, in which, when it has acquired a certain age, it flowers
regularly in the spring, and constantly so, as far as we have observed
of the plants in Chelsea Garden; Mr. Aiton says in August, and Commelin
the summer through.
The _Melianthus minor_ grows to the height of three, four, or five feet;
its stem, which is shrubby, during the flowering season is apt to
exhibit a naked appearance, having fewer leaves on it at that period,
and those not of their full size; but this, perhaps, may in some degree
be owing to the plant's being placed at the back of others.
The foliage when bruised has an unpleasant smell.
It is a native of the Cape, and, according to Mr. Aiton, was cultivated
by the Duchess of Beaufort, in 1708; is propagated readily by cuttings.
[302]
Mimosa Myrtifolia. Myrtle-Leaved Mimosa.
_Class and Order._
Polyandria Monogynia.
_Generic Character._
_Flores_ mere masculi reliquis intersiti. _Cal._ 5-dentatus. _Cor._
5-fida aut 0. _Stamina_ 4-locularis. _Legumen. Linn. Syst. Nat. ed.
13. Gmel._
_Specific Character._
MIMOSA _myrtifolia_ foliis ovato-lanceolatis obliquis undulatis
acuminatis margine cartilagineis: primordialibus pinnatis. _Smith
Trans. Linn. Soc. v. 1. p. 252._
[Illustration: N^o. 302]
The seeds of this species of Mimosa having been sent over in plenty,
with some of the first vegetable productions of New South-Wales, and
growing readily, the plant has been raised by many cultivators in this
country; Mr. Hoy, gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, produced a
specimen of it in flower at a meeting of the Linnean Society in 1790; it
is a shrub of quick growth, and a ready blower: a plant of it in the
stove of Chelsea-Garden has this year (May 10, 1795) produced ripe pods,
and perfect seeds. In the greenhouse, where it flowers from February to
April, the blossoms go off without shewing any tendency to produce
fruit.
It is first described by Dr. Smith, in the Transactions of the Linnean
Society; the leaves in the plants that have fallen under our notice have
not accorded exactly with those he has described, having neither been of
a glaucous green colour, according to the usual acceptation of that
term, nor very much undulated; and though those of an individual plant
may have presented such an appearance, we are persuaded they do not do
so generally when growing and in good health.
The foliage is usually edged with red, and the flowers are fragrant.
[303]
Erica Ampullacea. Flask Heath.
_Class and Order._
Octandria Monogynia.
_Generic Character._
_Cal._ 4-phyllus. _Cor._ 4-fida. _Filamenta_ receptaculo inserta.
_Antherae_ apice bifidae, pertusae. _Caps._ 4-locularis, 4-valvis,
polysperma.
_Specific Character and Synonyms._
ERICA _ampullacea_ foliis ciliatis mucronatis, bractaeis coloratis,
floribus umbellatis subquaternis erecto-patentibus, stylo exserto.
[Illustration: N^o. 303]
The Erica here figured has some affinity in the form of its flowers to
the _E. ventricosa_, as these in their shape resemble a flask or bottle,
especially of that kind in which water is usually kept, we have named it
_ampullacea_; it is of very modern introduction.
On the 11th of June 1784, we had the pleasure to see a small plant of
this species in flower, with Mr. Williams, Nurseryman, Turnham-Green, an
unwearied and ingenious cultivator of this beautiful tribe of plants in
particular, the richness of whose collection will appear in the
subsequent list; by him it was raised from Cape seeds, though not more
than the height of ten inches, it produced eighteen branches, most of
which put forth flowers at their summits; we counted sixty-six blossoms
on this small plant.
The leaves are short, linear, somewhat triangular, rigid, edged with
fine crooked hairs, very visible when magnified, and terminating in a
mucro or point, on the older branches recurved and mostly eight-rowed;
each branch is usually terminated by four or five flowers, at first
growing closely together, and covered so strongly with a glutinous
substance, as to look as if varnished, and which is so adhesive as to
catch ants and small flies; as the flowering advances, they separate
more widely from each other, and finally a young branch grows out of the
centre from betwixt them; the true calyx is composed of four lanceolate
leaves, sitting close to and glued as it were to the corolla; besides
these, there are several other leaves, which might be mistaken for those
of the calyx, but which may with more propriety be called Bracteae or
Floral-leaves; some of these, like the calyx, are wholly red, others red
and green mixed together, and broader than the leaves of the plant; the
flowers are about an inch and a quarter in length, inflated below, and
contracted above into a long narrow neck, dilating again so as to form a
kind of knob, in which the antherae are contained, just below the limb,
which divides into four somewhat ovate obtuse segments, the upper side
of these segments is of a very pale flesh colour, the under side of them
as well as the dilated part just below them bright red, the body of the
flower flesh colour, marked with eight longitudinal stripes, of a deeper
hue; filaments eight, antherae within the tube; style projecting about
the eighth of an inch beyond the corolla; stigma, a round glutinous
head.
The flowers as they decay become of a deeper red colour, and finally
pale brown, still retaining their form and appearing to
advantage;--hitherto the plant has produced no seeds here, is increased
with difficulty either by cuttings or layers, but with most certainty in
the latter way.
* * * * *
A Catalogue of Heaths, cultivated and sold by Richard Williams, at his
Nursery, _Turnham-Green, Middlesex_.