Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 63/3513

by William Jackson Hooker

[ 3513 ]


Dryandra tenuifolia. Slender-leaved
Dryandra.
***************
Class and Order.

Tetandria Monogynia.

(Nat. Ord. - Proteaceæ)

Generic Character.

Perianthium quadripartitum v. quadrifidum. Stamina
apicibus concavis laciniarum immersa. Squamulæ hypo-
gonæ 4. Ovarium uniloculare biovulatum. Ovula post
fœcundationem cohærentia. Folliculus ligneus.Disepimentum ligneum semibifidum fructûs maturi omninò simile.
Receptaculum commune planum, floribus indeterminatim
confertis; paleis angustis, rarò nullis. Involucrum commune imbricatum.–Frutices plerumque humiles. Rami dum
adsint sparsi vel umbellati. Folia sparsa, pinnatifida v. in-
cisa, plantæ juvenilis conformia. Involucra solitaria, termi-
nalia, rarò lateralia, sessilia, foliis confertis, interioribus
quandoque nanis obvallata, hemisphærica, bracteis adpressis,
in quibusdam apice appendiculatis. Stylus sæpè perianthio
vix longior. Br.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

Dryandra tenuifolia; foliis elongato-linearibus pinnatifidis
subtruncatis subtùs niveis basi attenuatâ integerrimâ
petioliformi: lobis triangularibus decurrentibus divari-
catis margine recurvis, involucro longitudine florum:
bracteis tomentosis: exterioribus ovato-lanceolatis, pe-
rianthio stylum subæquante: unguibus basi lanatis
suprà cauleque glabris; laminis subsericeis. Br. in
Linn. Trans. 10. p. 215. ejusd. Prodr. 1 p. 398. Röm.
et Schult. Syst. Veget. 3. p. 447.

---

A native of barren heaths on the shores of King George's
Sound, where it forms rather a dense bush, flowering in the
month
--
month of January. In our conservatories, where, accord-
ing to Hortus Kewensis, it has been an inhabitant since the
year 1803, it usually puts forth its oval heads of flowers in
March; and continuing its blossoms during the two suc-
ceeding months, is a most desirable plant for greenhouse
cultivation among other compatriots in our possession from
the sterile shores of South-western Australia–a locality, so
desert-like in aspect, yet so rich in the rarer and more
diversiformed species of the great and splendid family to
which our plant belongs. Beyond its remarkable habit,
and the density of its extremely attenuated foliage, it holds
out other recommendations to the care of the botanic culti-
vator; namely, its freedom of growth, and the readiness
with which well-ripened cuttings take root. Our thanks
are again due to our liberal friend, Mr. Aiton, for the spe-
cimen furnished us last spring, by which, the means of
publishing the first figure of so interesting a plant, has been
afforded us.

Descr. A robust shrub, usually about three feet high,
very much branched; branches smooth, densely clothed with
leaves, spreading, often pendent. Leaves very linear, six to
eight inches long, pinnatifid, truncated at the apex, smooth
and dark green on the upper side, clothed with a white
tomentum beneath, very attentuated and entire at the base:
lobes alternate, triangular, decurrent, spreading, apex acute
and uncinated, the margins recurved. Involucre terminal,
solitary, oval, formed of numerous, imbricated bractes; the
outer ones ovate, acute, inner oblong and bluntish, ciliated,
and clothed with a thin adpressed tomentum. Receptacle
chaffy. Flowers numerous, bright-brown, included within
the involucre. Perianth deeply divided into four parts;
each segment very linear, thinly clothed with spreading,
white hairs towards the claws, which are themselves very
woolly, base, however, quite smooth. Lamina slightly
silky. Stamens four, inserted in the concave laminæ. An-
thers linear, apiculated, shorter than the concavities in which
they repose. Style smooth, terete, enlarged somewhat at
the base, and angular, the length of the perianth. Stigma
simple. Hypogynous scales four, each lancelolate, and
attenuate.

---

We know not that we can do better in occupying another
page, than by giving publication to a note furnished us
by Allan Cunningham, regarding another subject of the
highly
--
highly interesting Order of the plant here figured; namely,
a species of Persoonia, of goodly arborescent stature, and
moreover, the inhabitant of a country, in which the Genus
has never been supposed to exist.

It may be premised, that as far as the Botany of the
Islands of New Zealand has been investigated, from the
days of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander in the first
voyage of our great circumnavigator, down to the present
period, Botanists have been made acquainted with but a
solitary example of the family Proteaceæ, existing on those
Islands. In that individual, truly, the Order has there, a
very noble representive, viz. Knightia excelsa, a large
tree, often to be seen from sixty to eighty feet in height, in
the drier forests. This observation of the bare existance of
an Order on those Islands, so abundant in the neighbouring
continent of Australia, is more remarkable, since in the
southern latitudes of this latter vast country, (in which is
included Van Diemen's Land,) and in the same parallels in
South America, which also intersect New Zealand, Emboth-
rium as limited by Mr Brown, and Lomatia of the same
very eminent botanist, furnish several species; which, affect-
ing as they do cool regions, and rather humid localities,
might reasonably be expected to hold a standing also, on
the latter intermediate Islands. Neither the one Genus, nor
the other, have yet been discovered there, but a species of
Persoonia–a Genus hitherto limited in Geographic range
to New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, was observed at
Wangaroa, in 1826, and may be this defined:–

P. Toru; foliis elongato-lanceoatis acutis basi attenuatis strictis sub-
falcatisve obsoletè trinervibus utrinque glabris nitidis, racemis axillaribus
lateralibusve multifloris, pedunculis perianthiisque tomento ferrugineo
tectis, ovariis glabris dispermis epedicellatis, caule arborescenti, cortice
lævi.

Incolis Toru audit, unde nomen triviale.

Hab. In Novæ Zelandiæ insula septentrionali: prope sinum Bay of
Islands dictum; et in montosis sylvaticis viciniâ oppidulum Wangaroa,
(altitudine supra oceanum 1000 circiter pedun); nec non in sylva
primæva, (" Great Forest" dicta) versus flumen Hokianga; alibique
inter pagulos Indicos Wytangy et Keri-Keri, in nemoribus.

Lecta cum fructibus immaturis mense Novembri, et verosimiliter in
mensibus Septembri, Octobrique, florens. 1826. All. Cunn. 1833.
b. Rich. Cunningham.

Arbor sempervirens, viginti ad quadraginta pedes alta, potiùs gracilis,
admodum venusta, et in habitu omninò aliquot specierum Acaciarum
aphyllarum; trunco erecto ad basin diametro 6-uncias æquante, cortice
lævi,
--
lævi, sursum ramosissimo. Ramuli patentes, glabri, rugosi, cinerco-
atri, lapsu foliorum cicatricibus prominentibus notati. Folia alterna,
versùs apices ramulorum confertiora, elongata, coriacea, valdè glabra,
suprà nitidissima, venosa, sæpè sex uncias longa, et semunciam lata.
Racemi plerumque axillares, erecti, multiflori tomento rubiginoso tecti:
Flores (in specimine immaturi et nondum aperti) unibracteati. Ova-
rium glabrum, dispermum, sessile, v. epedicellatum. Glandulæ hypo-
gynæ 4, brevissimæ. Stigma depresso-capitatum. Drupa baccata,
putamine biloculari.

Oas. Affinis P. articulato, et inter hanc et P. longifoliam fere media.
Folia longiora, angustiora quàm in P. articulato, perianthiaque tomen-
tosa. Inflorescentia P. longifoliæ, a qua differt, foliis latioribus, ovariis-
que sessilibus. A. C.