5. The same, magnified.
This pretty little plant was first found by Masson and Thunberg, when on their journey together in the interior of the country of the Cape of Good Hope, and was named by Thunberg after Professor Falk of Petersburgh. It was introduced to the Kew gardens in the year 1774. Much as it resembles Convolvulus, it still has a greater affinity to Nolana in all its outward parts, but especially in the cup of the flower, and the situation and character of the seeds. Although the plant is not shrubby, the stems, which are wiry, do not die down in winter, but take root, if laid close to the earth. It is encreased by parting the roots in May; should be planted in sandy loam, and kept in the green-house, where it will blossom in July or August. Our figure is from a plant which flowered in the collection of J. Vere, Esq. Kensington Gore.
It is rather singular that the indefatigable, and generally accurate, Willdenow, should have continued this plant in the sixth class, when he had such authority, as may be found, page 325, Vol. I, in the Catalogue of the Kew Garden (where it unquestionably has flowered) for the removal of it to its proper one, the fifth. It is true, he had reason to suppose, that no man would be rash enough to form a new Genus, without a due examination of the plant, on which he grounds his authority; and that, as Thunberg had discovered and named it, his authority was sufficient, and of greater weight than any other. But, unfortunately, in this instance, for the transcriber, the describer has been mistaken, and has led his followers into error. Indeed, the whole plant in its habit and character has so little affinity to any hexandrous genus, that, although Thunberg might have found a single flower, or even a whole plant, whose flowers had six chives (a circumstance we have not been able to discover, upon an examination of the flowers from four different plants), in such a case, as a botanist, he ought to have looked farther, before he made so violent a decision; and Willdenow ought to have taken it for granted the alteration would not have been made, but upon due consideration.[Pg 458]
PLATE CCLVIII.
BANKSIA PRÆMORSA.
Bitten-ended-leaved Banksia.
CLASS IV. ORDER I.
TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Four Chives. One Pointal.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
Receptaculum commune elongatum, squamosum. Corolla tetra-petala. Stamina limbo inserta. Capsula bivalvis, disperma, interjecto seminibus dissepimento mobili. Semina alata.