Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 58/3060

( 3060 )

Banksia littoralis? Shore Banksia.

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Class and Order.

Tetandria Monogynia.

(Nat. Ord.—Proteaceæ)

Generic Character.

Perianthum. quadripartitum (raro 4-fidum.) Stamina. apicibus concavis laciniarum immersa. Squamulæ hypogynæ 4. Ovarium biloculare, loculis monospermis. Folliculus ligneus: Diseppimento libero, bifido. Amentum flosculorum paribus tribracteatis! Br.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

Banksia littoralis?; foliis elongato-linearibus spinuloso-dentatis basi attenuatis subtus aveniis, perianthiis deciduis, folliculis compressis bracteisque strobili apice tomentosis, caule arboreo, ramulis tomentosis. Br.

Banksia littoralis? Br. in Linn. Soc. Trans. v. 10. p. 205? Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. p. 392? Rœm. et. schultes, Syst. Veg. v. 3 p. 438? Spreng. Syst. Veg. v. 1. p. 485? (excl. syn.) Bot. Reg. t. 1363.

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Descr. Shrub erect. Branches ascending, purple, villous. Leaves scattered, pubescent when young, naked and dark green above when old, densely covered with snowy tomentum beneath; on short, erect petioles, linear, truncated, spinuloso-serrated, veinless, slightly revolute at the edges. Amentum (four inches "long, three inches broad to the extremities of the styles) terminal, upon a short, leafy, peduncle, the branches rising far above it, from a whorl at its base. Flowers in pairs, forming rather distant double lines along the rachis, with which, when fully expanded, they are nearly at right angles, expanding from above downwards. Bracteas tomentose, green where exposed,

yellow where included, either solitary, rhomboid, subacute, with the apex turned up, when they are placed between the flowers, or germinate, round, and placed above or below them. Calyx four-parted, covered with appressed pubes cence; claws linear, yellow, the spoon shaped segments of

the limb reddish, nodding. Anthers elliptical, subsessile in the cavities of the calyx. Style twice as long as the calyx, shining, of a deep purple colour except at the base and apex, where it is yellow, deciduous, rigid, apex nodding. Stigma an abrupt, glandular, scarcely-swollen termination to the style, retained for a time within the calyx, as in the other species, and when liberated, covered with the yellow, granular pollen, which gives it a capitate form.

This species flowered in the greenhouse of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, in November, 1830, immediately after B. speciosa, figured at t. 3052 of this work, and continued also in blossom at the same time with it; the two species forming a good contrast in their colours and manner of flowering. The present seems quite different from B. microstachya of Cavanilles and B. attenuata of Brown, with both of which Sprengel unites his B. littoralis.

I have assigned the specific name to this plant doubtfully, and have quoted all the the authorities above cited, with hesi- tation; excepting the Botanical Register; because there seems some reason to question its identity with the plant sent from New Holland by Mr. Brown, and cultivated at Kew, under the specific appellation of B. littoralis. The specimen which flowered with us was received in 1828 from Mr. Mackay of Clapton, without a name; again in 1829, he kindly communicated a seedling, marked B. collina, whch has proved to be the same, differing only in being destitute of veins on the back of the leaf. I have a specimen from Mr. Fraser, of a plant that must rank very near this, and is chiefly distinguisable by its leaves being longer, narrower, and quite entire, except near the apex, where there are four small teeth, and by the branches being much less hairy. In colour and in the manner of flowering, it perfectly coincides. Graham.

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{{text-indent|1em|Fig. 1. Two Flowers. 2. Stigma, with part of the Style.–Magnified.