Empalement persistent, bracteated at the base, 5-parted, with the divisions nearly round, and lying close.
Blossom bell-shaped, the mouth spreading 5-lobed.
Chives five inserted in the tube and included, alternate with the divisions of the blossom: Threads short: Tips nearly round, compressed.
Seed-bud above, oval: Shaft thick and short: Summit simple-headed.
Fruit a dry capsule of an oval wedge-shape, two-furrowed, dividing into two parts, and crowned with the persistent shaft: each part is two-valved and many-seeded, opening on the inside at the top: Receptacles for the seeds one in each cell; they are long, three-sided and erect, lying upon the edges of the valves.
Seeds oval, convex on one side and depressed on the other, every where rough with minute tubercles, and placed upon the receptacle in a double series.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. A blossom.
3. The same spread open.
4. Seed-bud and pointal.
5. The same magnified.
6. The capsule.
7. The same split into two divisions.
8. One of the divisions uncovered, to show the situation of the seed.
9. A ripe seed.
The specimen of this new and very distinct genus was communicated April the 11th by the marquis of Blandford from a fine plant in his lordship’s collection at White Knights, planted against a wall on a south aspect, about four feet high, and nearly covered with blossoms. Its great fragrance, more resembling that of the May (Cratægus Oxyacantha) than any thing else we are acquainted with, makes the plant very desirable to collectors, and the more so, that it is hardy enough to bear our winters without the shelter of a green-house, and blossoms so early in spring. This fragrant shrub is a native of New Holland in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, from whence we have seen fine specimens in the collection of A. B. Lambert, esq. who favoured us with the ripe fruit. Who first introduced the plant, we have not been able to learn, but have seen it in several collections.[Pg 57]
