points. Petals 5, imbricate, spreading flat, but becoming
more or less undulate when beginning to close ; obovate or
obcordate, slightly emarginate, and crenated with numerous
very small notches at the point, of a delicate light yellow,
with a white mark near the base: the flower altogether,
about the size of a large Primrose. Stamens 10, short, every
other one longest: filaments flat, tapering to a sharp point,
and remaining persistent: anthers peltate, or joined by their
back to the filaments. Styles 5, villous, unequal in length,
shorter than the stamens. Stigmas capitate, tubercled. Capsules inclosed in the persistent, reticulated calyx, each
one seeded, all of them so firmly attached together and to
the calyx, that they cannot be easily separated; it should,
therefore, be all sown together, and the young plants come
up readily, the roots bursting through the back of the calyx.
Our drawing of this very rare and curious plant was
taken at the Nursery of Mr. Colvill, who, last Autumn, received
both dried roots and seeds of it from Mr. Synnet,
who collected them in the interior of the Cape; we had been
long hoping to see the present species growing in our collections,
as we knew of its existence by specimens which we
had seen in the Banksian herbarium, now in the possession
of Mr. Brown. Gsertner describes the flowers as blue, and
they certainly do appear more like blue than yellow when
dried.W
hen we received the roots of the plants, which were
in good preservation, we expected to see them flower much
sooner than those plants that were raised from seeds sown
at the same time; in this we were disappointed, as the seedling
plants produced their flowers first, though the old plants
were also in bud at the same time; the soil in which we
planted them all, was about one half of potsherds, broken
small, and mixed with an equal portion of loam, peat, and
sand; in this they are thriving very well, and producing
abundance of flowers, and we expect that they will ripen
seeds. M. Decandolle has now placed this genus in ROSACE,
®.
1. Ripe fruit, showing the persistent calyx:ments much smaller than in 6. temifolium, a nthde m cuapchsu lleesss arnigdi dp.e r2s.i sStetanmt feinlas,
e3v. Gereyr motehne,r toernme ilnoantgeeds tb, ya l5l cvoenryn eucnteedq uaalt wthoeo lblays set,y laensd, teinrmseirnteadte din bthy el acraglyisxh. capitate stigmas. 4. The same with 7 Styles, two of which are very small.