Although the Clerodendrum tomentosum has been in England above ten
years, no figure of it has before been given in this country. All the
plants which we have seen of it form erect shrubs from four to six feet
in height. The time of blossoming is March and April. We have been
favoured with specimens in blossom from the botanic garden of the
Company of Apothecaries at Chelsea, and with the ripe fruit from Sir
Abraham Hume’s collection at Wormley-bury, but are uncertain who first
introduced it.
[Illustration]
PLATE DCVIII.
CITRUS NOBILIS.
_Mandarin Orange._
CLASS XVIII. ORDER III.
_POLYADELPHIA ICOSANDRIA._ Many Sets of Chives. Threads from the Calyx
or Receptacle.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALYX 5-dendatus. Corolla 5-petala. Stamina 20 in cylindrum passim
connata. Stylus 1. Bacca 9-12-locularis, pulpâ vesiculari.
CUP five-toothed. Petals five. Stamens about twenty, generally
united at the base. Shaft 1. Fruit 9-to 12-celled, the pulp
variously divided.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
CITRUS petiolis sublinearibus, fructu latescente depresso.
CITRUS with nearly linear leafstalks; the fruit broad depressed.
CITRUS nobilis, inermis, ramis adscendentibus: petiolis strictis,
fructu tuberculoso subcompresso.--_Lour. Flor. Cochinchin. 2. p.
569?_
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. Chives and pointal.
3. The chives spread open, a tip magnified.
4. Seed-bud and pointal.
5. A horizontal section of the fruit.
* * * * *
The drawing of this remarkable Orange, which has so long been a
desideratum in this country, was taken at Wormley-bury in the beginning
of last May. The plant is a native of China, and Mr. Barrow informs us,
that he found the fruit very common when on his travels in that country,
and in much higher estimation than the common Orange by the Chinese, who
call it Mandarin Orange (answering nearly to the English epithet of
noble) by way of pre-eminence. The same gentleman also informs us, that
he found some fine trees of it in the gardens at the Cape of Good Hope;
it is therefore the more singular that it has been so long in reaching
this country. From Loureiro’s description of his Citrus nobilis, there
can be little doubt of its being intended for the Mandarin Orange;
which, he informs us, grows to a moderately sized tree, and particularly
notices the superior excellence and the depression of the fruit, whose
common size is about five inches across. The plant at Sir Abraham Hume’s
is as yet only about five feet in height, and was imported from Canton
in 1805.
It is easily distinguished from the common Orange, both by its curious
form and internal structure, the pulp adhering so loosely to the rind as
to be separable from it by the slightest effort, and leaving in many
places a considerable opening between them.
[Illustration]
INDEX
TO THE PLANTS CONTAINED IN VOL. IX.
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