PROTEA ABYSSINICA.

Transvaal, Rhodesia.

Proteaceae. Tribe Proteeae.

Protea, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 169.

Protea abyssinica, Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. i. p. 522; Fl. Cap. vol. v. sect. 1, p. 581.

The Protea illustrated here is a very common species on the hillsides in the neighbourhood of Pretoria. It sometimes attains a height of 15 feet, is much branched, and has no distinct trunk. We have no record of the species occurring further south, but it certainly extends into Rhodesia, and perhaps—though we have some doubt on this point—into Abyssinia. The species was first described by the botanist Willdenow, under the present specific name in 1797, and he based his description on a figure which appeared in Bruce’s Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, which was published in 1790. The point as to whether the Transvaal plant is the same species as that figured by Bruce needs further investigation.

The specimens from which the figure was made were collected by Miss I. C. Verdoorn at Waterkloof, near Pretoria.

Description:—Branches glabrous. Leaves 7-15·5 cm. long, ·8-2·2 cm. broad, narrowly oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, subacute or obtuse, narrowing to the base, coriaceous, glabrous. Inflorescence, 6·3 cm. long, and about 6·3 cm. in diameter when expanded, narrowed into a short scaly stipe. Involucral-bracts 11-seriate, silky; the inner oblong, concave, shorter than the flowers. Perianth with three small teeth at the apex, densely hairy. Ovary covered with a dense tuft of long hairs; style 4·5 cm. long, more or less curved; stigma slightly bent at the junction with the style.