Protea Mellifera. Honey-Bearing Protea.

Class and Order.

Tetrandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Cor. 4-petala: interdum basi vel apice coherentibus. AntherÆ lineares vel oblongÆ petalis infra apicem insertÆ. Cal. propius 0. Nux supera, 1-locularis, evalvis.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

PROTEA mellifera foliis lanceolato-ellipticis capituloque terminali oblongo glabris. Thunb. Prot. n. 37. Linn. Syst. Veget. ed. 14. Murr. p. 139. Ait. Kew. vol. 1. p. 127.

LEUCADENDRON repens foliis lanceolatis, floribus oblongis, calycum squamis glabris. Linn. Sp. Pl. ed. 3. p. 135.

LEPIDOCARPODENDRON foliis angustis brevioribus salignis, calycis squamis elegantissimi ex roseo aureo albo atro rubro variegatis, florum plumis albis. Boerh. Lugd. 2. p. 187.

To a magnificent appearance, the blossom of the Protea joins a structure extremely curious and interesting; but, at the same time, difficult to be understood by students, who are apt to consider the whole as one great simple flower, while in reality it is composed of a number of florets enclosed within a common calyx formed of numerous leaves or scales placed one over the other, and sitting on one common receptacle, being in fact what Botanists term an aggregate flower, approaching indeed near to a compound one, there being in the structure and union of the antherÆ a considerable similarity to those of the Syngenesia class, much more so than in the flowers of Plantain, Scabious, Teasel, and others.

The florets of the present species correspond extremely well with the character of the genus Leucadendron in the sixth edition of the Genera Pl. of LinnÆus, but not with that of Protea, as given in the Hort. Kew. and Gmel. ed. Linn. Syst. Nat. to which it is now united; the corolla being most evidently composed of two (not four) petals, the largest of these is trifid at top, each segment of it, as well as the summit of the smaller petal, terminates in a twisted kind of plume, not peculiar to this species; of the antherÆ, which are long, linear, and form a kind of cylinder, three are attached to the largest petal, the fourth (which appears to be less perfect than the others) to the smaller petal; the germen is enveloped with numerous orange-coloured hairs, having the gloss of the richest sattin; the antherÆ terminate in small appendages of a brown colour.

This magnificent shrub, a principal ornament of the Cape-House at Kew, is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, from whence it was introduced by Mr. Masson, in 1774 (Ait. Kew.); it flowers chiefly in the Spring, and often during the Summer; is propagated principally by layers.

Our drawing was made from a plant raised from Cape seeds, which flowered this season, among a number of others equally curious, in the collection of Mr. Barr, Nurseryman and Florist, near Ball's-Turnpike, Kingsland.

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