Of this species of Ipomæa there are two good uncoloured figures: one in
Commelin’s Rariorum, tab. 21, under the title of Quamoclit Americana;
the other in the Americana of Plumier, 89, tab. 103, under the
appellation of Convolvulus coccineus; but not to be confounded with the
Ipomæa coccinea (erroneously so called) of the Botanical Magazine, which
is the I. luteola of Jacquin’s Icones, and a very different plant:
although Willdenow in his Species Plantarum has made a mere variety of
it; observing that it differs in no other particular except in colour.
But comparison, either with the living plants or the figures above
alluded to, will prove them to be distinct in their foliage as well as
the colour of their flowers. Neither of them is well discriminated by
its specific title; as the I. luteola is more of a scarlet than of a
yellow colour, and the coccinea is of too deep a red to be with accuracy
denominated scarlet. But references to colour are mostly too equivocal
to be very characteristic.
From Mr. J. Milne, botanic gardener at Fonthill, we received this
specimen, whose luxuriant growth in the hot-stove may probably have
occasioned the abbreviation in the filaments, which are generally
extended a little beyond the mouth of the flower, instead of being
confined to the base of the tube, as our figure represents; but in which
we follow nature: and although it is not an unprecedented circumstance
to find the threads shortened or lengthened by culture, yet when that
difference is so very powerful as in the present instance, it is well
deserving notice.
[Illustration]
PLATE D.
PROTEA MUCRONIFOLIA.
_Mucronate-leaved 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. Semina 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 foliis lanceolatis, mucronatis, glaucis: involucro
imbricato, ad basin parvo, cuneato, virescente; superis
lanceolatis, patentibus, acutis, albis: floribus terminalibus,
capitatis, carneis, petalis cohærentibus.
PROTEA with lance-shaped, mucronate leaves of a glaucous green: the
involucrum tiled, small at the base, wedge-shaped, and greenish:
those on the upper part are lance-shaped, spreading, pointed, and
white: flowers are terminal and headed, flesh-coloured, with the
petals adhering together.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower spread open, one tip magnified.
2. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.
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