BLOSSOM four-cleft, or of four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the points. Cup proper, none. Seeds solitary. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. PROTEA foliis tri-furcatis, filiformibus, acutis: floribus parvis, ramos terminantibus in umbellis confertis. Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei. PROTEA with leaves three-forked, thread-shaped, and pointed. Flowers small, and terminate the branches in crowded umbels. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. A leaf. 2. A bract. 3. A flower, one tip magnified. 4. Seed-bud and pointal. Throughout this small divided-leaved section of the genus Protea there is a similarity of appearance in the foliage, that makes the specific differences appear less distinct than they really are. The small-flowered species is a compact bushy little shrub, about fourteen inches high, and nearly the same in width, requiring a light sandy loam, free access of air, and a little attention to preserve it from the partial humidity of the atmosphere. [Illustration] PLATE DXXXVII. ORIGANUM TOURNEFORTII. _Tournefort’s Origanum._ CLASS XIV. ORDER I. _DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA._ Two Chives longer. Seeds naked. GENERIC CHARACTER. STROBILUS tetragonus, spicatus, calyces colligens. Corollæ labium superius erectum: inferius 3-partitum: laciniis æqualibus. HEAD of flowers four-sided, like ears of corn, containing the cups. The upper lip of the blossom is upright: the lower is three-parted, in equal segments. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. ORIGANUM spicis tetragonis: bracteis sub-rotundis, maximis: foliis geminis, oppositis, alternis, cordatis, punctatis, glaucis. Habitat in Magna Græcia. ORIGANUM with a four-sided spike: floral leaves nearly round, and large. Leaves by pairs, opposite and alternate, heart-shaped, dotted, and glaucous. Native of Greece. REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. A flower. 2. The same spread without the cup. 3. Seed-bud and pointal. This species of Origanum was first discovered by Tournefort, who, in his travels in the Levant, describes it as one of the rarest plants in all the Archipelago; native of Amorgos, and only to be found in the clefts or rents of a hideous rock that overhangs the sea. At the bottom of this rock stands a convent of the Virgin, a large house resembling a chest of drawers, and to which there is no entrance but by a ladder of a dozen wooden steps through a small opening in one of the corners, the door of which is covered with iron plates. This frightful promontory is naturally perpendicular, and said to exceed in height that of La Sainte Baume in Provence. [Illustration] PLATE DXXXVIII. VANILLA PLANIFOLIA. _Flat-leaved Vanilla._ CLASS XX. ORDER I. _GYNANDRIA DIANDRIA._ Chives on the Pointals. Two Chives. GENERIC CHARACTER.