James Edward Smith

“ Flower-stalks all compressed. Lid somewhat membranous.
All the species are destitute of hairiness or pubescence, the leaves simple, lanceolate, or ovato-lanceolate, pointed, entire, most frequently oblique, and often unequal at the base, on angular footstalks, without stipulæ. Stamina very numerous. Style and stigma simple.
There seems to be another species in the gardens, with narrow leaves, the young ones of a rich purple, but its flowers are as yet unknown. ”

“ It is the peculiar privilege of reasoning man, not only to extend his enquiries to a multiplicity of attainable benefits to himself and his species, besides the mere animal necessity of food, but also to walk with God through the garden of creation, and be initiated into the different plants of his providence in the construction and œconomy of all these various beings ”

“ In this point of view no natural production is beneath the notice of the philosopher, nor any enquiry trifling under the guidance of a scientific mind.
In compliance however with those who do not look so deep into natural knowledge, we here introduce to their acquaintance almost the only wild eatable fruit of the country we are about to illustrate. ”

“ In natural affinity Pimelea nearly approaches Passerina and Daphne, but their number of stamina being so very different, surely justifies us in keeping it separate from them. In this natural order we are not yet indeed quite clear upon what principles genera ought to be discriminated, and therefore dare not undertake to remove the great uncertainty in which all authors have left them. ”

“ An attempt to make the Public acquainted with some of the productions of a country of which they have lately heard so much, and in which they are now as a nation so deeply interested—a country too so extremely unlike all those best known to Europeans, cannot fail to be acceptable, however imperfect in its extent. ”

“ Having lately received specimens from New South Wales of five more very distinct species, we shall now attempt to characterize them, first describing more fully that exhibited in our plate.
Eucalyptus robusta is one of the largest and loftiest of trees, frequently 100 feet in height; its wood hard, heavy and strong, of a reddish colour, and abounding with resin. ”

“ Pimelea linifolia has a small zigzag root, from which arises a straight round smooth upright stem, branched irregularly for the most part, though sometimes appearing dichotomous, in consequence of the young branches springing in pairs from the upper part of the old flowering ones. The bark is reddish, cracking longitudinally; its inner layer remarkably silky, which is characteristic of this natural order. Leaves clothing the younger branches, opposite, on very short footstalks, slightly spreading, linear-lanceolate, varying much in breadth, sharpish, entire, with a simple nerve. ”

“ Lid conical, and, as well as the calyx, angular, and somewhat two-edged. Heads of flowers lateral, solitary, on flower-stalks.
The leaves are ovato-lanceolate, firm, astringent, but not very aromatic. We have seen no other species in which the flowers stand in little dense heads, each flower not being pedicellated so as to form an umbel. The lid is about as long as the calyx. Flower-stalk compressed, always solitary and simple. ”

“ We know no other species that has so much asperity about it; certainly every other simple-leaved one yet discovered is perfectly smooth. It has not appeared in the gardens, nor were any specimens sent till last year.
It seems to form a thick rigid bush, the branches numerous, alternate, spreading, round, very rough with a short, dense, rigid pubescence, especially when young. ”

“ After objecting, with reason, to generic names too familiar in sound to each other, he is somewhat unmerciful in stigmatising almost all that have any syllables in common, and wonders at Vaillant for using the termination theca at all. The word surely in itself is unexceptionable; and as all the generic names of Vaillant constructed with it, even Tetragonotheca (which Linnæus at first retained) , are now laid aside, and therefore there can be no ambiguity, we hope to be excused for adopting theca, as it so precisely suits our purpose. ”

“ IT has lately been a complaint among cultivators of plants, that the vegetable productions of New Holland, however novel and singular, are deficient in beauty. We do not think the censure by any means just in general ”

“ Its genus is easily characterised in the Linnæan system by the many-seeded berry above the flower, and may stand somewhere between Escallonia and Mangifera. We cannot certainly tell what genera are its natural allies, especially as we have no knowledge of the fruit and seeds except from a drawing. ”

“ It grows to a height of three or four feet, the branches alternate, upright, angular, with a very tough, smooth bark. Leaves of the young seedlings in pairs, pinnated; their leaflets oval: but when the stem rises, the common footstalks of its leaves become dilated, the leaflets cease to appear, and the whole shrub is ever after furnished with such dilated naked footstalks, which we beg permission to call leaves, because they undoubtedly to all intents and purposes are so ”

“ Solander's original name, Styphelia, derived from ςυφελος harsh, hard or firm, expressive of the habit of the whole genus, and indeed of the whole natural order.
This shrub forms a thick bush, two or three feet in height, variously branched, firm and rigid in all its parts; the branches round, downy when young. ”

“ The plaits of the corolla are externally hairy. The antheræ very minutely bearded. Style very hairy in its upper part. The fruit of this species we have not seen ripe, but the enlarged germen is oval and hairy. ”

“ The upper and lowermost are more simple. Flowers inodorous, in a long, loose, terminal, simple spike; standing in pairs, back to back, each on its proper footstalk, with one lanceolate sharp bractea in common to the two. Petals white, much spreading, and revolute at the tip. Antheræ two-lobed. Germen with three remarkable glands at the base of its footstalk in front. Style much incurved. Follicle oval, slightly carinated. The seeds we have not seen, but they should seem to be very few. ”

“ Footstalks very short, pale and smooth, erect at night, by which the leaves become closely pressed to the branch, and imbricated one over the other, though in the day time, and especially in bright sunshine, they spread horizontally. The very remarkable stipulæ stand solitary just above the insertion of each footstalk, erect, and close-pressed to the branch, whose bark they by that means completely conceal ”

“ Standard with a firm horizontal claw, its limb erect, round, slightly notched, the two sides generally folded together, deep yellow, with a red semicircular line near the base. Wings nearly linear, obtuse, concave, with a large tooth at the base, deep yellow, horizontal, much shorter than the standard. Keel of two pale yellow, obovate, concave petals, as long as the wings, strongly connected by their lower edge, and with a tooth near their base on the upper. Stamina all nearly equal, somewhat shorter than the keel, a little declining ”

“ The tree is of a considerable height, upright, much branched, and of a beautiful appearance when the flowers are come to maturity, or rather about perfecting their seed, as in the specimen here figured. Every part is quite smooth. ”

“ The other species which we have been able with certainty to determine, though we have incomplete specimens, or drawings, of several more, are
2. S. ericoides, corollæ limbo patente hirsutissimo, racemis axillaribus brevissimis erectis, foliis lanceolato-ellipticis revolutis. ”

“ The root is perennial, thick and woody. Stem very much branched even from the bottom, round, the younger branches angular, and clothed with fine silky down, as are likewise the flower-stalks, corollæ, and backs of the leaves. ”

“ Only one garden in Europe, we believe, can boast the possession of this rarity, that of the Dowager Lady de Clifford, at Nyn Hall, near Barnet, who received living plants from Sidney Cove, which have not yet flowered. ”

“ The leaves are for the most part ternate, covering the branches without any order, nearly sessile, the uppermost, or those which grow on the weaker branches, being simple. Their form is mostly elliptical, sometimes linear, always tipped with a minute very sharp point, entire, revolute, three-nerved, and veiny, the lateral nerves running in a very peculiar manner very near the margin and along the sharp edge made by its being turned in ”

“ Flowers thick set in a cylindrical erect spike, arising from the divarications of the branches. Their common receptacle is cyclindrical, rather obtuse, covered with closely imbricated downy scales, some of the lowermost of which terminate in a long downy pointed arista, and from among the rest the flowers come out in pairs. ”

“ The generic character above given certainly distinguishes it from all other genera, and the name applies to the very unusual horn-like divisions of the petals, like those in the leaves of the Ceratophyllum of Linnæus. One species only is already known. ”

“ The leaves surround the branches in great numbers without any regular order, and are linear, very narrow, tipped with a little sharp point, entire, smooth, without any projecting vein or nerve, most frequently ciliated with fine stiff hairs. ”

“ Stipulae none. Flowers in terminal heads, numerous, inodorous. Bracteæ four ovate entire leaves, close to the flowers. Corolla very slender, tubular, snow-white, silky externally; the limb in four equal ovate spreading segments, with a red spot on the base of each withinside. ”

“ Limb of the corolla spreading, naked; the orifice hairy. Clusters axillary and terminal, very short, erect. Leaves awl-shaped.
4. S. scoparia, corollæ limbo concaviusculo imberbi, racemis axillaribus brevissimis recurvis, foliis lineari-lanceolatis.
Limb of the corolla somewhat concave, naked. Clusters axillary, very short, recurved. Leaves linear-lanceolate.
5. S. daphnoides, corollæ limbo patente subpubescenti, floribus axillaribus solitariis, foliis ellipticis concaviusculis. ”

“ Both these shrubs promise to be extremely ornamental to our greenhouses, as they produce abundance of bloom, and are among the most elegant of all their tribe.
EXPLANATION of TAB. VI. P. formosum.
1. Calyx. 2. Bracteæ. 3. Standard. 4. One of the Wings. 5. Keel. 6. Stamina. 7. Germen. 8. Ripe pod. ”