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PIMELEA drupacea.
Drupe bearing Pimelea.
Linnean Class and Order. DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
Natural Order. THYMELEE. Brown prodr. 358. Supra fol. 7.
PSeIcMt.E ILI.E FAo. liaS onppproas itfao.l . 8C.apitulum terminale. Folia floralia rameis subsimilia.
P. drupacea, foliis ovali-oblongis planis subtus pubescentulis: floralibus capitulo lon-
gioribns, perianthii tubo cylindraceo deciduo, drupä baccatä. Brownprodr. p. 61.
Pimelea drupacea. Labill. nov. holl. 1. p. 10. t. 7. Lodd. bot. cab. 540. Rcem. et Schult,
syst. 1. p. 275. Spreng, syst. 1. p. 92. Swt. hört. brit. p. 352,
An upright evergreen Shrub, with few branches : branches a
little flattened, particularly near the leaves, clothed with short
hairs, most of which are pressed upwards toward the stem. Leaves opposite, crossing each other, upper ones longest, ovally
oblong, bluntish, smooth and bright green on the upper side
and slightly pubescent underneath, the margins entire, but slightly
fringed, underneath pinnately veined. Petioles short, hairy. Flowers in a terminal head, from 4 to 1 0 , white, but dying off reddish
or blush. Perianthium tubular, 4-cleft, hairy : tube short,
narrowest at the base; laciniae of the limb spreading, ovate, obtuse.
Stamens 2 , inserted in the mouth of the tube: filaments
short, smooth: pollen yellow. Ovarium oval, slightly pubescent
, bearded at the point. Style smooth, about the length
of the tube. Stigma capitate.
This pretty plant is a native of Van Diemen’s Land; it is not
so handsome as P. decussata or P. rosea, but is, nevertheless,
well worth a place in the Greenhouse, as it is a free grower, and
when covered with flowers makes a neat appearance, thriving
well in a pot of sandy peat soil with a little loam mixed with it,