Cape Province.
Proteaceae. Tribe Proteeae
Protea, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 169.
Protea compacta, R. Br. in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. x. 76; Fl. Cap. vol. v.
sect. i. p. 570.
We have previously figured two species of Protea belonging to different sections of the genus. On Plate 22 will be found P. abyssinica (§ Lasiocephalae) with a large head not contracted into a scaly peduncle at the base, while on Plate 76 we figured P. recondita (§ Leiocephalae) with a smaller head and a scaly peduncle. Our present plant belongs to quite a separate section (Ligulatae), which is characterised by the inner involucral bracts being produced into a long claw with an oblong or oblanceolate limb. Protea compacta is a common plant in some parts of the Cape Province, especially in the Caledon Division, but is also found in parts of the Cape and Stellenbosch Divisions, and a single specimen, collected by Zeyher, has been recorded from the van Staden’s Mountains. In its natural habitat it is a bush 4-6 ft. high with brilliant pink bracts partly surrounded by the uppermost leaves, and in many localities the flowering bush is one of the features of the landscape. Like many other species of Protea in the Cape Province, this species is visited by a large coleopterous beetle.
Our plant was collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., at Hawston in the Caledon Division, where it is found growing on white sandy soil. The species has been established in cultivation at the National Botanic Gardens, Kirstenbosch, and is doing remarkably well there. Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium, Pretoria (No. 2577).
Description:—Branches finely tomentellous, at length glabrous. Leaves 3¼-4½ in. long, ¾-1½ in. broad, strongly imbricate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, obtuse with a callous point, sub-cordate or rounded or slightly narrowed at the base, coriaceous, prominently veined, glabrous, with the margins shortly villous or at length glabrous. Head sessile, 4 in. long, about 2½ in. in diameter. Involucral-bracts 8-seriate; outer ovate, obtuse, villous-pubescent or more or less glabrescent, with a dense fringe of woolly hairs; inner more or less flesh-colour to carmine with an oblong limb and a linear claw, finely villous-tomentose, tips densely ciliate, exceeding the flowers. Perianth-sheath 2 in. long, dilated, 5-nerved and 3-keeled below, finely tomentose, glabrous at the base; lip over 1 in. long, 3-awned, lateral awns 3-4½ in. long, filiform, flexuous, tawny to purplish-tomentose; median awn 1 in. long, filiform. Fertile stamens 3, sub-sessile; filaments ¾ in. long, flattened; anthers linear, 4½ in. long; apical gland almost 1 in. long, lanceolate-oblong; barren stamen 4½ in. long, linear, eglandular. Ovary 1 in. long, oblong, densely covered with long light-golden hairs; style 2 in. long, finely grooved on the convex side, glabrous; stigma 2½ in. long, linear, obtuse, strongly keeled and bent at the junction with the style.
[Plate 84.]—Fig. 1, longitudinal section of receptacle; Fig. 2, surface view of portion of receptacle; Fig. 3, an outermost bract; Fig. 4, inner bract; Fig. 5, a single flower; Fig. 6, ovary and base of style; Fig. 7, stigma and upper part of style.
F.P.S.A., 1923.