Volume 8 — PLATE DXVII.

PROTEA IMBRICATA.

Imbricated-leaved Protea.

CLASS IV. ORDER I.

TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Four Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Corolla 4-fida, seu 4-petals. 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 imbricatis, lanceolatis, nervosis, pilosis: floribus terminalibus, confertim capitatis, villosis.

Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.

Thunb. Diss. 45. t. 5. f. 2.

Protea with imbricated leaves, lance-shaped, nerved, and hairy: flowers terminal, in crowded heads, and hairy.

Native of the Cape of Good Hope.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

This Cape species is described and figured by Thunberg in his Dissertation on the genus Protea. It is rather a tender plant, and flowers at first very sparingly; which is the case with almost all this tribe for the first year or two: after they are more familiarized to our climate they become much more prolific. We have seen native specimens of this species abundant in flowers terminating every branch.

Our figure was made from a plant in the conservatory of G. Hibbert, esq. whose collection still contains unrivalled the greatest number of new and beautiful species of Protea.