Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 87/5286 Verticordia nitens
Glistening verticordia.
Nat. Ord. Myrtaceæ: Trib. 1. Chamælaucieæ, De Cand
Polyandria icosandria.
Gen. Char. Flos ante evolutionem bracteis 2 liberis concretisve involucriformi-
bus cinctus. Calycis lobi in lobulos 5-7 palmatipartiti. Petala 5. Stamina 20,
quorum 10 sterilia ligulæformia, 10 alterna fertilia, inter se æqualia. Stylus fili-
formis, exsertus. Stigma barbato-plumosum. Ovarium uniloculare, ovula 5-6
centro adtixa erecta includens. Fructus 1-spermus. Semen globosum.-Frutices
Australasici, Pileanthi facie. Folia opposita, lineari-subtriquetra. Flores lon-
giuscule pedicellati, ex aillis supremis orti, in corymbos terminales dispositi.
De Cand.
Verticordia nitens; corymbo composito multifloro condensato, tubo calycis
turbinato glabro, lobis palmato-9-fidis, lobulis pinnato-plumulosis, petalis
subeartilagineis ovatis margine superiori inciso-fimbriatis, staminodiis line-
ari-subulatis integerrimis, connectivo in galeam cristatam antherae imminen-
tem extenso, stylo incluso imberbi, bracteolis muticis caducis, foliis filiformi-
teretibus oblique mucronatis patulis. Shau.
Verticordia nitens.. Schauer, Monograph. Myrtac. Xerocarpic. p. 71. t. 4 B.
f. 1-5.
Chrysorrhoe nitens. Lindl. in Bot. Mag. Comp. v. 2. p. 357; and in App. to
the Bot. Reg. t. 1.
.jpeg)
It is now more than twenty years since a figure of this plant,
made from a dried specimen sent from Western Australia by Cap-
tain James Mangles, appeared in Dr. Lindley's 'Sketch of the
Vegetation of the Swan River Botany,' and was there described
as " the magnificent Chrysorrhoë nitens, whose yellow flowers, of
metallic lustre, form masses of golden stars some feet in dia-
meter." Ever since, it has been the desire of nurserymen and
others engaged in horticulture, to import this lovely plant; but,
though seeds have been repeatedly sent, and to our garden
amongst others, either they have not germinated, or died off
before the flowering-time. At length the Messrs. Veitch, of the
Exeter and Chelsea Nurseries, have succeeded in rearing and
flowering this plant, in August, 1861, not, indeed, in the per-
december 1st, 1861.
--
2
fection to which it attains in its native country; and we are in-
debted to them for the specimen here figured.
Descr. A twiggy shrub, very much branched, with opposite
branches; three to four feet high, corymbose at the top, so thick
as to form, in its native country, a spreading mass of golden-
yellow flowers, some feet in diameter: these flowers retain their
colour and brilliancy when dry. Leaves opposite or quaternate,
linear-filiform, obtuse, about an inch long. Pedicels slender, in-
crassated a little upwards, above which, at the setting-on of the
calyx-tube, is a scar, whence two, cucullate, dotted bracts have
fallen. Calyx, with the tube turbinate: the limb of five lobes,
digitately divided into five or six or more, linear, long-ciliated
segments. Petals five, broad, ciliate, dotted. Stamens twenty;
ten sterile, short, and thread-like; ten perfect, and twice as long.
Anther very peculiar, two-celled, large, ovate, rostrate; at the
base are two globose cells; these have a larger, cucullate, fleshy
connectivum, which looks like a calyptra. Ovary one-celled,
with two ovules: style from the centre of a depressed disk: stigma
a mere point.
Fig. 1. Leaf, with a small portion of a branch. 2. Bud, with its deciduous
bracteas. 3. Bud, from which the bracts have fallen. 4. Fully expanded flower.
5. Calyx-lobe. 6. Petal. 7. Ovary, cut through vertically, with the style and
portion of the stamens. 8. Perfect anther:-all more or less magnifed.
--