Blossom four-cleft, or four-petaled. Tips linear, inserted on the petals below the apex. Empalement proper, none. Nut one-seeded, above.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &C.
Protea, foliis filiformibus incurvis glabris, capitulis racemoso-spicatis tomentosis. Thunb. Prod. 26.—Diss. no. 22. tab. 3. fig. 2.—Willd. Sp. Pl. 1. 516.
Protea, with thread-shaped incurved smooth leaves, and heads of flowers racemose-spiked and woolly.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower.
2.A petal magnified.
3. The seed-bud and pointal, with the summit detached and magnified
The Protea incurva is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, which is also the native country of by far the greater part of this extensive genus.
In this country it is considered and treated as a hardy green-house plant; and requires, like most of its congeners, a fresh loamy soil, and an airy situation in the winter. A very abundant supply of fresh air, indeed, is of essential consequence in the cultivation of most of the Cape plants; they benefit by it in the day time in most sorts of weather, even if rainy, provided the plants are not wetted by the rain, and the temperature of the atmosphere is not lower than forty degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer.
In many collections, we are of opinion, too little air is usually admitted in the green-house; especially in winter, and early spring: and we are also of opinion, that where we have seen the most given, the plants are the most healthy and robust. The fine collection at Mr. Hibbert’s is a powerful argument in favour of this theory.—In few places is air so freely given; in none are plants in finer health: therefore much air is essentially necessary; for plants, like animals, are now known to absorb from the atmosphere, through a process analogous to respiration, its oxygenous particles; thence deriving strength and vigour, and without which no animal or vegetable can at all maintain either health or life.
Our figure was made from the Clapham Collection last June. The plant is shrubby, erect, and is propagated by cuttings in the usual way.[Pg 139]