1. A flower complete.
2. Seed-bud and pointal.
This Protea may be regarded as an intermediate character between the P. mellifera and that fine section of Protea speciosa; and certainly, in point of beauty, deserves to be ranked among that showy division: but as the principal leading feature in the Speciosas exists in the powerful feathery fringe upon the edges of the imbrication, and the present one possessing so very slight a characteristic of that description, we could not with propriety rank it amongst them. Its affinity to the P. mellifera is only in the honey-bearing character of its flowers, which, like that species, contain a quantity of nectariferous juice. The unoccupied term of coronata is adopted, from the resemblance its imbrication bears to the form of a crown, and which is more apparent in this species than in any other as yet in cultivation with us. Our figure was made from the Clapham collection.[Pg 75]
PLATE CCCCLXX.
OPHRYS ARACHNOIDES.
Spider-like Ophrys.
CLASS XX. ORDER I.
GYNANDRIA DIANDRIA. Chives on the Pointal. Two Chives.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.