Volume 9 — PLATE DLXXXIV. PHLOMIS SAMIA. Samian Phlomis.

CLASS XIV. ORDER I.

DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. Two Chives longer. Seeds covered.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx angulatus. Corollæ labium superius incumbens, compressum, villosum.

Cup angled: upper lip of the corolla incumbent, compressed and downy.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Phlomis caule hirsuto, foliis cordatis, crenatis, subtus tomentosis, bracteis tripartitis subulatis mucronatis calycem æquantibus. Willd. Sp. Pl. 3. p. 120.

Phlomis with a hairy stalk: leaves heart-shaped, scolloped, and cottony underneath: bracts 3-parted, awl-shaped, as long as the cup.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

This curious species appears to have been introduced by Mr. Miller; but, not being enumerated in the Hortus Kewensis, nor the Catalogue of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, must have been since lost. Indeed Mr. Miller informs us, that the severe winter of 1740 destroyed all the plants of it then in England. A. B. Lambert, esq. who communicated the specimens in July last from his garden at Boyton, informs us that Dr. Williams, regius professor of botany at Oxford, favoured him with the plant; and his predecessor Dr. Sibthorpe, who made two journeys into Greece to enrich us with the natural history of that interesting country, was probably the re-introducer. The name Samia is derived from the island of Samos; but Monsieur Desfontaines informs us (in his Flora Atlantica) that the original Samian plant of Tournefort and the Phlomis Samia of Linnæus (which he found wild about Mount Atlas) are different species. Both may possibly be natives of Samos: the posthumous Flora Græca of Dr. Sibthorpe, now publishing by his friend Dr. Smith, will, we trust, decide it. There is no prior figure of the plant.