Volume 8 — PLATE DXXII.

PROTEA ABROTANIFOLIA HIRTA.

Hairy Southernwood-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 bipinnatis, filiformibus, pilosis: floribus ramos terminantibus in umbellis confertis: pedunculis brevissimis: bracteis erectis: corollis pallide carneis. Stigmata nigra.

Habitat ad Caput Bonæ Spei.

Protea with doubly-winged leaves, thread-shaped, and hairy. Flowers terminate the branches in crowded umbels. Footstalks very short. Floral leaves upright. Blossoms of a pale flesh-colour. Summit of the pointal black.

Native of the Cape of Good Hope.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

This hairy-leaved Protea resembles the P. abrotanifolia, Pl. 507, but is upon examination very distinct. The flowers are of a pale rose colour, but have a lively appearance from the contrasted blackness of the stigma. It is a round bushy plant, flowering early in the autumn, requiring the same treatment as the generality of those species with small divided leaves.

Our figure was made from a plant in the Hibbertian collection.