POLYGALA (micrantha) floribus imberbibus axillari-sessilibus,
foliis linearibus mucronatis. _Thunb. Prod. 121._--_Willd. Sp. Pl. 3.
892._
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. The same magnified.
3. The keel magnified.
4. One of the wings.
5. The same magnified.
6. The chives.
7. The same magnified.
8. The pointal.
9. The same magnified.
There is an elegance and a grace in the habit and appearance of this
Polygala, which in a great measure compensates for its trifling
flowers. It forms a small, and but little branched, twiggy shrub; is a
native of the Cape of Good Hope; and belongs to the Heisteria division
of the genus. We do not know that it has ever been figured before; but,
notwithstanding the short character given by Thunberg, have little
doubt of its being the plant he intended for P. micrantha. The honour
of introducing it, and also some other shrubby Polygalæ, into this
country, is due to G. Hibbert, Esq., from whose choice collection at
Clapham our figure was taken.
Polygala micrantha continues flowering the greatest part of the year,
winter as well as summer, is a very hardy green-house plant, and is
propagated by cuttings in the usual way.
If we were to consider the flowers as resupinate, and perhaps they
really are so, what we have called the keel would become the standard,
and the small appendage which is a part of it below would answer as
its keel. The expanded flowers of this species, and also those of
P. stipulacea of our 363d plate, viewed in front, very remarkably
resemble in outline, and almost in size, the insects which I have
named Tineæ Bombyciformes; but the wings of the flower, which answer
to the pectinated horns of the insects, appear rather too large.
P. alopecuroides of our 371st plate possesses this extraordinary
resemblance still more completely; inasmuch as the ciliæ of its keel
correspond exactly to the fringes of the insects’ wings! A more perfect
similitude between objects in reality so remote and so different, I
have very rarely, or never, beheld.
[Illustration]
PLATE CCCCXXV.
MANGIFERA INDICA.
_Indian Mango Tree._
CLASS V. ORDER I.
_PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Five Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
FLORES pentapetali, inferi. Drupa reniformis. Corolla petalis
lanceolatis. Nux lanuginosa.
FLOWERS 5-petalled, beneath the fruit. Drupe kidney-shaped.
Blossom with lanceolate petals. Nut woolly.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &C.
MANGIFERA, foliis oblongo-lanceolatis, floribus submonandris,
drupa maxima reniformi. _Willd. Sp. Pl. 1. 1150._
MANGO, with oblong-lanceolate leaves, somewhat monandrous
flowers, and a large kidney-shaped drupe.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A front view of a detached flower magnified.
2. A back view of the same.
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