This handsome hot-house plant is certainly an old one, having been a sojourner with us near thirty years, but has not as yet been figured in any publication that we know of:--a neglect most probably resulting from the singularity of its unclosing flowers; so uncommon a character naturally conveying an idea that the plant was in an imperfect state. Under this prejudice it has lost the charm of novelty, and many a less attractive object has been preferred before it. This genus approaches so close to the genera of Hibiscus, Althea, Malva, &c. that it must certainly be considered as a very near relation to that family. Its foliage is frequently deciduous on the lower part of the stem; a defect to which stove plants in general are but too subject. It is a native of South America and the West India Islands, was found by Dr. Houston in Jamaica in 1731, and introduced by B. Bewick, esq. in 1780. It flowers from July till the end of the year. [Illustration] PLATE CCCCLIII. PROTEA REPENS. _Creeping Protea._ CLASS IV. ORDER I. _TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Four Chives. One Pointal. ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. COROLLA 4-fida, seu 4-petala. Antheræ lineares, petalis infra apices insertæ. Calyx proprius, nullus. Sem. solitaria. BLOSSOM four-cleft, or of four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the points. Cup proper, none. Seeds solitary. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. PROTEA repens, foliis sub-amplexicaulibus, cordatis, undulatis, apice reflexis, acutis, marginibus rubris: floribus sub basin: interius squamarum calycis læte carneum, exterius fusco-purpureum, villosum. PROTEA with a creeping stem, and leaves nearly surrounding it, which are heart-shaped, waved, bent back at the end, sharp-pointed, and red at the edges: flowers grow towards the base of the plant: the inside of the scales of the empalement are of a bright flesh colour, and the outside of a purply brown, and hairy. REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. The blossom complete, and one of the chives magnified. 2. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.