Volume 3 — PLATE CLVII. CORDIA SEBESTENA. Rough-leaved Cordia.

CLASS V. ORDER I.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Five Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx. Perianthium monophyllum, tubulatum, apice dentatum, persistens.

Corolla monopetala, infundibuliformis: tubus patulus, longitudine calycis; limbus erecto-patens, sectus in quinque (quatuor vel sex), lacinias obtusas.

Stamina. Filamenta quinque, subulata. Antheræ oblongæ, longitudine tubi.

Pistillum. Germen subrotundum, acuminatum. Stylus simplex, longitudine staminum, superne bifidus, laciniis bifidis. Stigmata obtusa.

Pericarpium. Drupa globosa, acuminata, calyce accreta.

Semen. Nux sulcata, quadrilocularis.

Empalement. Cup one leaf, tubular, toothed at the upper part, remaining.

Blossom one petal, funnel-shaped; tube widening, the length of the cup; border upright and spreading, cut into five (four or six) obtuse segments.

Chives. Five threads, awl-shaped. Tips oblong, the length of the tube.

Pointal. Seed-bud roundish, tapered. Shaft simple, the length of the chives, two-cleft at the upper part, segments two-cleft. Summits blunt.

Seed-vessel, pulpy, globular, tapered, growing to the cup.

Seed. A furrowed, four-celled nut.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Cordia foliis oblongo-ovatis, scabris; floribus miniatis, crispis, hexandris.

Cordia with oblong egg-shaped rough leaves; flowers deep orange colour, crumpled, and with six chives.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. The Empalement.

2. A Blossom spread open, with the Chives in their place.

6. The Pointal and Seed-bud.

As it should seem a determined principle in the inscrutable arrangement of nature’s productions, to the greater humiliation of our very limited understandings; that no effort as emanating solely from thence, shall be perfect; so must we be content to pursue our Botanical travel, under the guidance of a system decidedly defective; yet certainly, the best we have to boast. Scarce a genus, comprehending a number of species, but must be strained in its class or order, for the introduction of one, or more species, evidently of the same family. So convinced was our great master of the science, of the impossibility of forming such certain data, that to prevent the confusion and difficulty, which must have arisen, from such an accumulation of Genera, if every sexual character was attended to, that, where certain other characters (called by him essential, and adopted as a substitute for such occasional hiatus) are formed, the plant is retained under the Genus so characterised. This disquisition is the natural result of our examination of the present plant, which, although the chives are six, is placed in the fifth class!

The Rough-leaved Cordia is a native of the Weft India Islands and was cultivated, says Martyn’s Dictionary, from Dillenius, in the year 1728, by Dr. Sherard. It is a tender hot-house plant, may be increased by cuttings made about the month of April, if kept from too much moisture, in a pot of sandy loam, under a small striking glass in the bark-bed. At present it is rather a scarce plant in our collections, and as it is rather difficult to propagate, is likely to continue so, at least for some years. From an imported plant, received by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith, from the island of Barbadoes, our figure was taken in the year 1789, about the month of July. It is grown to the greatest perfection by keeping it in a mixture of rotten dung and loam.