EMPALEMENT persistent, bracteated at the base, 5-parted, with the
divisions nearly round, and lying close.
BLOSSOM bell-shaped, the mouth spreading 5-lobed.
CHIVES five inserted in the tube and included, alternate with the
divisions of the blossom: Threads short: Tips nearly round,
compressed.
SEED-BUD above, oval: Shaft thick and short: Summit simple-headed.
FRUIT a dry capsule of an oval wedge-shape, two-furrowed, dividing
into two parts, and crowned with the persistent shaft: each part is
two-valved and many-seeded, opening on the inside at the top:
Receptacles for the seeds one in each cell; they are long,
three-sided and erect, lying upon the edges of the valves.
SEEDS oval, convex on one side and depressed on the other, every
where rough with minute tubercles, and placed upon the receptacle
in a double series.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. A blossom.
3. The same spread open.
4. Seed-bud and pointal.
5. The same magnified.
6. The capsule.
7. The same split into two divisions.
8. One of the divisions uncovered, to show the situation of the seed.
9. A ripe seed.
The specimen of this new and very distinct genus was communicated April
the 11th by the marquis of Blandford from a fine plant in his lordship’s
collection at White Knights, planted against a wall on a south aspect,
about four feet high, and nearly covered with blossoms. Its great
fragrance, more resembling that of the _May_ (Cratægus Oxyacantha) than
any thing else we are acquainted with, makes the plant very desirable to
collectors, and the more so, that it is hardy enough to bear our winters
without the shelter of a green-house, and blossoms so early in spring.
This fragrant shrub is a native of New Holland in the neighbourhood of
Port Jackson, from whence we have seen fine specimens in the collection
of A. B. Lambert, esq. who favoured us with the ripe fruit. Who first
introduced the plant, we have not been able to learn, but have seen it
in several collections.
[Illustration]
PLATE DXXI.
ERIOSPERMUM FOLIOLIFERUM.
_Leaflet-bearing Eriospermum._
CLASS VI. ORDER I.
_HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Six Chives. One Pointal.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX nullus.
COROLLA. Petala sex basi connata, subtus lanceolata, acuta: tria
exteriora patula: tria interiora erecta, cum limbo acuto patulo
connivente. Omnia post impregnationem erecta, in modum coni.
STAMINA. Filamenta sex, late lanceolata, acuta, plana, apicibus
introrsum volutis. Antheræ oblongæ, incumbentes.
PISTILLUM. Germen superum, subrotundum, trisulcatum. Stylus
filiformis, erectus. Stigma obtusum.
PERICARPIUM. Capsula triloba, trilocularis, trivalvis.
SEMINA pauca, lanceolata, acuta, pilis tomentosis obsessa.
EMPALEMENT none.
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