Sophora foliis pinnatis; foliolis lanceolatis, mucronatis, subtus tomentosis; caule fruticoso.
Sophora with winged leaves; leaflets lance-shaped, pointed, downy beneath; stem shrubby.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The Cup.
2. The Standard, or upper Petal.
3. One side Petal, or Wing of the Blossom.
4. One of the Petals of the Keel.
5. The Chives and Pointal, natural size.
6. One of the Chives, magnified.
7. The Pointal, natural size.
This is a plant of considerable size at the Cape of Good Hope, so much so, as to be looked upon there rather as a tree, than shrub. It was first sent to England, in the year 1773, by Mr. F. Masson; is a hardy green-house plant; thrives in a mixture of loam and peat, and flowers in August, or September. There is no method, yet discovered, to propagate it in this country; but, as seeds are so common of this plant, near Cape town, there is scarce a parcel arrives, from thence, which does not contain some of them.
Among the new modern vagaries in botany, this genus has been thought, by the French botanists, (those admirable perplexers of natural order,) to be better divided in two, as some of the species happen to have the joints of the pods a little more swelled than others. How so trifling a variation, and that in a part of the plant which is known to vary, in almost every genus, through most of the species, where they are numerous; should have been deemed of sufficient moment to alter the names of so many established plants, and those determined by such authority as Linnæus, we are at a loss to determine; and are equally astonished that Willdenow should have followed them. The new genus is termed Podalyria, and to which, this plant is attached in the new system.[Pg 119]
PLATE CCCXLVIII.
SCHOTIA SPECIOSA.