Xeranthemum herbaceum: foliis amplexicaulibus, oblongis, margine revolutis, lanâ albâ tectis: floribus terminalibus, solitariis, pallide aurantiis, nitidissimis: squamæ inferæ fulvescentes.
Xeranthemum with an herbaceous stem: leaves embracing the stem, oblong, rolled back at the edges, and covered with a white wool: flowers terminate the branches singly, are of a pale gold colour, and very shining: the lower scales are of a foxy tint.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. One of the radiating scales.
2. A floret of the disk.
3. The chives and pointal.
4. Leaf of a variety.
This handsome species of Xeranthemum may be regarded as truly herbaceous, as the plant not only dies down annually, but even whilst living keeps constantly sending up fresh shoots from the root. The white appearance of the leaves is owing to their being enveloped by a kind of wool: but there are two varieties; the one whose foliage is almost without this woolly coat, and the other entirely divested of it, and of a rich green colour; but in every other particular the plants are all exactly alike.
Our figure was made from a small plant in fine flower in the conservatory of G. Hibbert, esq.[Pg 111]
PLATE CCCCLXXXVIII.
BROUSSONETIA PAPYRIFERA.