Empalement 3-leaved, downy, and remaining. Blossom one-leafed, woolly, and five-cleft. Threads 5, fixed to the base of the seed-bud. Seed-bud above. Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Lasiopetalum quercifolium, ternatum: foliis duobus ad basin minoribus; supra viridibus, subtus nervosis, ferrugineis, stellatim setis tectis: racemis floriferis longis, foliis oppositis: corollis purpureis. Rami et ramuli, pedunculi, &c. setis stellatim tecti, ferruginei. Caulis humilis.
Woolly flower with oak-shaped leaves, by threes; two at the base are smallest; green on their upper surface, veined beneath, of a rusty iron colour, and beset with hairy star-like specks. Flower-branches long, and opposite to the leaves. Blossoms purple. The small and larger branches, footstalks, &c. are beset with star-like specks, and of a rusty colour. Stem low.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. Seed-bud, chives, and pointal.
3. A chive magnified.
4. The same shown from the outer side.
5. Seed-bud and pointal.
Throughout almost all the plants as yet introduced from New South Wales, there is a strong marked leading feature that proclaims them of Botany Bay extraction, either in the upright strictness of their habit, a hard harsh character in the foliage, or a rough and rusty exterior. Of the last description is our present figure; but it is nevertheless a very handsome plant, and the only addition (to this otherwise solitary genus) as yet in cultivation with us. Labillardiere, in his Description of New South Wales, has given a figure of a plant under the title of Lasiopetalum triphyllum, very much resembling our quercifolium—probably a variety of it—or, if intended to represent the same plant, there must be a considerable inaccuracy in the delineation. Our figure was taken from a plant at the nursery of Messrs. Colville.[Pg 55]
