Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 19/738 Banksia Ericaefolia

by John Sims

[ 738 ]

Banksia Ericæfolia. Heath-Leaved

Banksia.

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Class and Order.

Tetrandra Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Amenatum squamatum. Cor. 4-petala. Antheræ in cavitate
laminarum sessiles. Caps. bivalvis. Sem. bipartibile. L. sup.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

BANKSIA ericæfolia ; soliis approximatis acerosis truncato-
emarginatis glabris. Linn. Suppl. p. 127. Willd.
Sp. Pl. 1. 536. Bot. Repos. 156. Cavan. Icon.
vol. 6. t. 538.

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The Banksia, a genus so named in honour of its first dis-
coverer, the President of the Royal Society, in a voyage
round the world with Captain Cook, is very nearly allied to
Protea, and like that appears to contain a great number of
species of very various forms and size. Our present plant
forms a handsome shrub, thrives freely, and has flowered in
several collections; our drawing was taken from that of
E. J. A. Woodford, Esq. at Vauxhall, in April 1802.

The beauty of the flower consists very much in the length
of the style; which, from the stigma being long retained
within the anthers, is fanciful bent into a loop: when the
efflorescence is complete, the petals expand and let the stigma
at liberty. The flower is considered by some as monopetalous,
but the petals, in Banksia ericæfolia at least, adhere so lightly
at the base only, that they can hardly be kept from separating
when removed from the receptacle. The germen in this spe-
cies is surrounded with brown hairs very like that of many of
the Proteæ. We could not discover any other calyx than
the squama of the Amentum, in no respect like that described
by Gærtner. A native of New-Holland. By no means
tender and may be kept in a greenhouse with Proteas and
other Cape shrubs. Propagated by seeds and by cuttings.