Volume 10 — PLATE DCXLII. GOMPHOLOBIUM GRANDIFLORUM. Large-flowered Air Pod.

CLASS X. ORDER I.

DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Ten Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx campanulatus, simplex, alte 5-fidus. Corolla papilionacea. Stigma simplex, acutum. Legumen inflatum, sphæricum, uniloculare, polyspermum.

Empalement bell-shaped, simple, deeply five-cleft. Blossom butterfly-shaped. Summit simple, acute. Pod inflated, spherical, one-celled, many-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Gompholbium foliis ternis vel quinis, linearibus, apice mucronatis: corollis coccineis: pedunculis basin versus bibracteatis: caule volubili.

Gompholobium with leaves in threes and fives, linear, and mucronated at the end: blossoms of a scarlet colour: peduncles with two floral leaves near the base: stem climbing.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

This nondescript species of Gompholobium is, when in flower, the most elegant of the genus, but when out of bloom few plants have less attraction.

It was first raised in the Royal gardens at Kew, about the year 1809, and is as yet in very few collections. Our figure represents an entire plant from the conservatory of the Countess de Vandes, which flowered in the month of June 1811, and perfected its seed about the middle of September, at which period its slender branches had grown nearly six inches longer (than they were when in bloom), and, twining round a small stick placed for their support, had every appearance of becoming a graceful climbing plant.