MIRBELIA speciosa.
Beautiful Mirbelia.
Linnean Class and Order. DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA.
Natural Order. LEGUMINOSÆ. DC. prodr. 2.p. 93.
Subordo I. PAP1LIONACËÆ.—Tribus I. Sofhoreæ. Supra fol. 5.
MIRBELIA. Calyx 5-fidus, bilabiatns. Legumen dispermum, longitudinaliter
biloculare, suturà utràque superîore præsertim introflexi.—Suffrutices Australasici,
fructii ad Astrugalum, staminibus et habita ad Sophoreas accedentes. Folia ternatim ver-
ticillata. Flores purpurei. DC. prodr. 2. p. 114.
M. speciosa, foliis linearibus stibacntis marginibus revolatis integerrimis, floiibus (fo-
liis floralibus abbreviatis) in spicam terminalem interruptam dispositis. DC. prodr.
Mirb2e. lipa. s1pXe5c.iosa. Sieb, pl.exs.n. holl. n. 367. Swt. hört. brit. add.p. 475. Spreng, syst,
vol. 4. par. 2. p. 175.
Stem suffruticose, from a foot to 18 inches in height, much
branched: branches slender, angular, and clothed with a hoary
pubescence. Leaves whorled, generally in threes, linear, scarcely
acute, but terminated with a very small mucro, the upper side
smooth, underneath pubescent, the margins rolled back: floral
leaves shorter. Petioles very short and succulent, at first slightly
pubescent, but becoming at last quite smooth. Stipules very
small, nearly obsolete, black. Flowers terminating the branches
in a sort of interrupted spike, of a bright purple. Pedicles
scarcely half the length of the leaves, clothed with close-pressed
white hairs. Bractes 2, one on each side of the calyx, lanceolate,
acute, keeled and dilated at the base. Calyx: 5-cleft, 2-lip-
ped, thickly clothed with white close-pressed hairs, the upper lip
not so deeply cleft as the lower one; the laciniae acute, reflexed
when the flower is expanded. Vexillum broad, emarginate or
two-lobed, narrow at the base, of a bright purple with darker
veins, proceeding from the yellow spot at the base. Alee or wings obovate, slightly eared on one side near the base, with a
short broadish unguis. Carina short and blunt. Stamens 10,
all distinct, ascending: filaments smooth: anthers yellow, twok
2