Protea, foliis lanceolatis acutis capituloque terminali rotundo glabris.
Protea Scolymus. Willd. Sp. Pl. 1. 522.—Schrad. Sert. Hann. tab. 20.—Ait. Hort. Kew. 1. 127.
Protea, with lance-shaped acute smooth leaves and a round terminal smooth head of flowers.
Leucodendron (Scolymocephalum) foliis lanceolatis, floribus subrotundis, caule fruticoso ramoso. Linn. Sp. Pl. 2. 153.
Lepidocarpodendron acaulon, ramis numerosis e terra excrescens, calyce floris immaturo extus e rubro et flavo variegato, intus flavo. Boerh. Lugb. 2. p. 192. tab. 192.
Scolymocephalus africanus, fruticis æthiopici coniferi Breynii foliis, capite majori squamato. Raj. H. 3. 10.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A floret detached.
2.A petal with its tip magnified.
3. The seed-bud and pointal
The Protea Scolymus grows spontaneously on the Tiger mountain at the Cape of Good Hope; but has long been an inhabitant of European conservatories, although a rare one. It was well known to several of the old botanists, who appear to have differed much concerning the generical appellations which they thought proper to bestow upon it; as will appear on consulting the synonyms above. They made several genera of Proteæ; but the botanists of later times have melted them all down (we fear injudiciously) into one great genus: and Schrader has even added Lambertia to Protea; and figured it in his Sertum Hannoverianum, under the name of Protea nectarina; thereby alluding to the sweet juice which abounds in the tubes of its flowers:—melliflua would have been a still more expressive term. The smooth-leaved Protea requires the same treatment as the rest of the genus, and is a very fine species, producing its flowers in May and June. Our figure was taken at the Clapham collection.[Pg 99]
