Plate 192.
Reading edition
PROTEA Harmeri. Cape Province. Proteaceae. Tribe Proteae. Protea, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 169.
Protea Harmeri, Phillips in Kew Bulletin 1911, p. 83; Fl. Cap. vol. v. sect. i. p. 593.
A comparison of the accompanying Plate should be made with the illustration on Plate 108. Both the species figured belong to the same section of the genus Protea, all characterised by very narrow leaves.
Protea Harmeri was first found by Dr. (now Sir Sydney) Harmer on a hill near Matjesfontein when he visited South Africa in 1905; it was subsequently collected by Dr. R. Marloth on the Wittebergen and again later in the Zwartberg Pass between Oudtshoorn and Prince Albert. The specimen figured was collected near the summit of the Zwartberg Pass in July 1925. The plant is a bush about 6 ft. high and is extremely handsome, as the dark heads show up in strong relief from the greyish-green leaves.
Description:—A bush about 1 m. high. Branches greyish tomentellous above, becoming glabrous. Leaves 4·5 to 6·5 cm. long, 2·5 to 3·5 mm. broad, linear, obtuse to subacute with a callous point attenuated at the base, margins recurved; youngest leaves finely villous at the base. Head sessile, 2·5 cm. long, about 2·5 cm. in diam., globose; receptacle convex. Involucral-bracts 10-11-seriate; outer ovate, obtuse, glabrous or the lowest very finely pubescent, with membranous ciliate margins; inner oblong-spathulate, obtuse, brick-red, recurved above, glabrous or minutely pubescent, not equalling the styles. Perianth-sheath 1·5 cm. long, 0·75 mm. broad, dilated above, 3-keeled and 3-nerved below, glabrous or hirsute at the apex; lip 4 mm. long, 3-toothed, rufously setulose, glabrescent on the back; teeth subequal, 0·25 mm. long, the middle one smaller. Stamens all fertile, subsessile; anthers linear, 3 mm. long; apical glands 0·25 mm. long, ovate, obtuse, swollen on the inner face. Ovary 2 mm. long, oblong-obovate in outline, covered with long brown hairs; hypogynous scales 1 mm. long, 0·25 to 0·5 mm. broad, oblong, obtuse; style 2 cm. long, falcate, arching over the centre of the head, terete above, flattened and hollow below, glabrous; stigma 2·25 mm. long, linear, obtuse, grooved, passing into the style. (Fl. Cap.—National Herb., Pretoria, No. 2916.)
Plate 192.—Fig. 1, single flower; Fig. 2, posterior perianth lobe; Fig. 3, pistil; Fig. 4, receptacle.
F.P.S.A., 1925.
