Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 58/3052

( 3052 )

Banksia speciosa. Handsome Banksia.

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Class and Order.

Tetandria Monogynia.

( Nat. Ord. - Proteaceæ. )

Generic Character.

Cal. quadripartitus (raro quadrifidus.) Stamina. apicibus concavis laciniarum immersa. Squamulæ hypogynæ 4. Ovarium biloculare, loculis monospermis. Folliculus bilocularis, ligneus: diseppimento libero, bifido. Amentum flosculorum paribus tribracteatis. Br.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

Banksia speciosa.

Banksia speciosa.; foliis linearibus pinnatidis lobis triangulari-semiovatis mucronatis subtus niveis obsolete nervosis, calycis laminis lanatis, stylo pubescente, folliculis tomntosis. Brown.

Banksia speciosa Br. Trans. Linn. Soc. v. 10. p. 210 Spreng. Syst. Veg. v. 1. p. 486. Graham in Edinb. Phil. Journ. Dec. 1830.

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Descr. Trunk erect, branched: branches spreading, towards their extremities densely covered with snowy tomentum. Leaves (a foot and a half long, an inch and a half broad) scattered, linear, attenuated at the base, and very slightly so at the apex, truncated, pinnatifid, nerved and reticulated, covered on both sides when young, with short, dense, white tomentum, which is beatifully snowy below, when old, naked, bright green and shining above; segments alternate, triangular, ovate along their upper edge, mucronate, the mucro projecting forwards. Spike (four inches and a half long, three inches and a half broad to the

extremities of the styles) terminal. Flowers in pairs along the rachis, forming double lines, which are much crowded together, expanding from below upwards, every where yellow, except the stigma, which is red. Calyx (an inch and a half long) four-parted, woolly on the outside, the woolliness increasing upwards. Anthers subsessile, in the oblong hollow extremities of the calyx, linear-lanceolate. Style longer than the calyx, curved upwards, pubescent, filiform, tumid near the extremity, tipped with the red, subacute, somewhat angled stigma.

This very handsome species produced a fine head of flowers in the greenhouse of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, in October, 1830, the plant being above five feet high. Graham.

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Fig. 1. Pair of Flowers. 2. Three Bracteas from their base. - Magnified.