Corolla 4-fida, seu 4 petala. Antheræ lineares, petalis infra apices insertæ. Calyx proprius, nullus. Sem. solitaria.
Blossom four-cleft, or of four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the points. Cup proper, none. Seeds solitary.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Protea argentiflora; floribus paniculatis, densissime confertissimis, parvis rotundatis capitatis, fragrantibus, nitidissimis; foliis bipinnatis, linearibus, apice acutis, erecto-patentibus.
Protea with silvery flowers: the flowers grow in panicles, closely crowded together, in little round heads, sweet-scented and very shining: leaves twice divided, linear, sharp-pointed, and between erect and spreading.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. One of the scales.
2. A blossom detached from the umbel.
3. A section of it magnified.
4. Seed-bud and pointal, summit magnified.
5. The cone with the scales attached.
6. The same without the scales.
7. The naked cone.
From the shining silvery appearance of this Protea we have drawn its specific title, although aware of the insurmountable difficulty of doing justice to it: but in so extended a genus it will be frequently impossible to give a discriminating or unoccupied specific from its foliage:—our title may always be ascertained when the plant is in bloom, whether in perfection or not, as the flowers living or dead always retain a shining silvery aspect. It also possesses a most exquisite sweet scent; but its superior fragrance only exists whilst the flowers are in perfection; as after that period it grows fainter, and is at last scentless. Our figure was made from the collection of G. Hibbert, esq.[Pg 31]
