3. A petal shewn sideways.
4. The Pointal and Chives, one Chive detached, magnified.
5. The Pointal cleared of the Chives, the Seed-bud and Summit detached and magnified.
The Balsam Tree is a native of all the West India Islands, and has been described by Plumier, Sloan, Jacquin, Browne, &c.; but no good figure of the plant, according with our ideas, has hitherto been given of it. The C. rosea, C. alba, and C. flava of Jacquin, the three various species, are said to grow to different heights, in the different Islands; which we are led to think, are but varieties of the same plant. Linnæus has taken them up as species, upon his authority; although Jacquin himself allows, that the one he denominates flava, varies in its blossoms to red and white. This plant does not grow to above the height of eight or nine feet, in this country, and seldom flowers. Our figure was taken last year in September 1801, from a plant in the Stepney Collection. Miller says it was cultivated by him in 1759, and had been introduced by Mr. Parker, of Croydon, in Surrey, from Barbadoes. It is readily propagated from cuttings, and thrives in rich, dungy earth. A slight mistake occurs, in the quotation from Browne, in Martyn’s Edition of the Dictionary; where, the petals are described as screw-shaped; Browne has it, “cochleata,” or shell-shaped, a most expressive term for the shape of these petals.[Pg 322]
PLATE CCXXIV.
GERANIUM REFLEXUM.
Reflexed-leaved Geranium.
CLASS XVI. ORDER IV.
MONADELPHIA DECANDRIA. Chives united. Ten Chives.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.