PLATE DCXVIII.

ANNESLEA SPINOSA.

Armed Indian Water Lily.

CLASS XIII. ORDER VII.

POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA. Many Stamens with many Styles or Stigmas.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX superus, persistens, 4 phyllus. Petala 30-40, oblongo-lanceolata, persistentia. Stamina 60-70, incurva; antheræ subovatæ. Styli nulli. Stigmata: sulculi decem in apice cyathiformi germinis, ad umbonem centralem decurrentes; inconspicui. Germen 10-loculare, supra cyathiforme atque ex columellâ centrali protrusâ umbonatum, margine 10-dentatum. Septa duplicia. Semina loculis in singulis 2, dissepimentis prope parietem alterne affixa, obovata. Fructus: bacca subovata, calyce persistente coronata, spinosissima, 10-20-sperma. Semina matura non vidi.

Anneslea spinosa. Roxburgh.

Calyx above, persistent, 4 leaved. Petals 30 to 40, oblong-lanced, persistent. Stamens 60 to 70, incurved; anthers nearly ovate. Styles none. Stigmas: ten inconspicuous channels in the cup-shaped top of the germen, running down towards the central knob. Germen 10-celled, cup shaped above, with the central column rising like a knob in the middle; the margin 10-toothed. Partitions double. Seeds two in each cell, affixed to the partitions near the outer angle one on each side, inversely ovate. Fruit: a berry nearly ovate, crowned with the persistent calyx, exceeding thorny, 10-to 20-seeded. We have not seen the ripe seeds.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A flower cut open.

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Seeds of this wonderful water plant, originally a native of China, were sent preserved in sugar from Calcutta by Dr. Roxburgh, in 1809, to the Most Honourable the Marquis of Blandford, in whose magnificent Aquarium at White Knights it now raises its numerous heads bristling with spines, unrolls its immense leaves, and flourishes in all its grandeur.

In vain we review the plants of its natural order for any analogy to its thorny exterior; the Nymphs and Naiads, Nymphæeæ and Naiades, are not more conspicuous for their elegance and beauty than for their mildness; Anneslea, like the panther, seems to unite the extremes of ferocity and beauty. The leaves are nearly orbicular, but sometimes a little extended upon one side with a corresponding notch on the side opposite, the largest being from six to eight feet in circumference; green on their upper surface, and reticulated with purplish branching veins, with a sharp curved thorn at each of their principal ramifications; their under side purple, thinly scattered over with a very fine brown pubescence, and reticulated with high raised, cellular, transparent, brown, branched veins, bearing innoxious thorns of the same form as those of the upper surface at their principal divisions. The compartments between the veins are irregular hexagons, pentagons, and rhomboids, which are again intersected by other minute veins nearly in the same manner. The leaf-stalks are centrally affixed, nearly round, very porous, and bristled with soft spines almost to where they rise from the root. The spines are hollow, of the most simple structure, and appear to be formed by a continuance of the cellular tissue of the plant protruded. See Mirbel’s Anatomie Vegetale, fig. 24. It is only where they stand out of water, as upon the fruit and upper surface of the leaves, that they become indurated and really formidable. Very different is the nature and structure of the thorns in the genus Rosa, where they are proper secreting vessels or abortions of such, indurated; and may be gradually traced in the R. damascena, muscosa, ferox, rubiginosa, and many others, from the almost imperceptible hair supporting viscous matter, down to the horny lacerating thorn. In the Geranium echinatum, on the contrary, and some Monsoniæ, the spines are mere indurated persistent stipules, and in the Astragali indurated petioles; while in Prunus, Cratægus, Ononis and Genista, the ends of the branches indurate into thorns, and a plant of Ononis spinosa deprived of its verdure and dried, would appear to be only one branched thorn. Thorns are also formed from indurated bracts, abortions of roots, leaves, branches, peduncles, flowers, petioles and supernumerary stipules as in the terrible Gleditschia, horrid with huge bunches of three-forked thorns from the very trunk of the tree. All these and other similar parts of plants, their real nature and use often overlooked, are in their aged and indurated state thrown together by Linnæus under the denomination of “Arma, (or Armour,) to prevent animals from injuring the plants.” Camels, however, and asses and goats, are observed to be particularly fond of thorny plants; and even quicks only escape being browsed by the cattle, by becoming woody or growing out of their reach.

The story of the Anneslea’s flowering under water may have probably arisen from the very short time the blossoms remain above; as, like those of the Nymphæa, they only rise to expand, and again gradually sink to ripen their seeds after the globules of fertilizing pollen have burst from their parent cells, phœnix like, to perish in renovating their race; and by adding circle to circle served to prolong the immoveable and immeasurable chain. That it certainly flowers above water, we can assert from our own observation; but we were informed at White Knights (where our drawing was taken last September) that it had flowered there below; which might have been owing to its artificial treatment, (We have seen the Nymphæa rubra flowering at the very bottom of the water in the same Aquarium.) and cannot be its natural state, unless we can bring ourselves to believe that nature has endowed it with the power of propagating itself in both elements.

We hope yet to see its magnificent foliage mantling our ponds. Have we not already taught the Thea--the Camillia--the Ta kio--the Moutan--the Yu lan, to resist our winters! Our water is not less temperate than our sky. The name Anneslea was given by Dr. Roxburgh, in honour of the Right Hon. George Annesley, Viscount of Valentia, who discovered the plant growing in the Gagra River in Oude, and also about Chittagong, when on his travels in India. The fruit abundantly distinguishes the genus from the Euryale of Mr. Salisbury.

PLATE DCXIX.

EUGENIA Zeylanica.

Ceylon Eugenia.

CLASS XII. ORDER I.

ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Stamens from the Cup. One Style.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

CALYX quadripartitus, superus. Petala quatuor. Bacca 1-locularis, 1-sperma.

CUP four-parted, above. Petals four. Berry of one cell, one-seeded.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

EUGENIA foliis subovalibus integerrimis coriaceis retusis, pedunculis unifloris solitariis vel geminatis, axillaribus lateralibusque.

EUGENIA with oval entire leathery retuse leaves, and one-flowered peduncles, either solitary or in pairs, axillary or lateral.

Eugenia zeylanica. Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. 2. p. 963.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. Empalement, seed-bud and pointal. 2. The fruit, with the seed detached.

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The Ceylon Eugenia is a low bushy wide-spreading shrub, with both the leaves and branches extending nearly horizontally. The flowers grow from the axils of the leaves and sides of the branches upon simple downy footstalks, which have two small bracts a little above their middle; and open in succession from the lower axils upwards. Professor Willdenow is not quite correct in stating the leaves to be impunctate, a minute dotting being visible on both surfaces with the naked eye, and very distinctly with the aid of a common eye-glass. The fruit is of the size of a large pea, rough with minute warts, and crowned with the persistent calyx.

We have seldom seen a more striking example of the astonishing resources provided by nature for the continuation of species than this plant, whose little germen when blossoming contains sixteen infant seeds (clustering round a common centre), while the fruit admits of one only coming to maturity! Above eighty stamens are also provided for the fertilization of a solitary stigma. We have often admired the common chesnut, each germen of which when blossoming contains twelve seeds in embryo, but this yet surpasses it.

We were favoured with fresh specimens last July by A. B. Lambert, esq. from his seat at Boyton, and a foreign specimen in his collection has also enabled us to add the fruit, which has not yet ripened in this country. The plant is stated in Donn’s Catalogue to have been introduced in 1798, most probably by Sir Abraham Hume, as the only plants of it that we have seen came originally from his collection.

PLATE DCXX.

<g>SCHINUS DENTATA.</g>

Toothed Schinus.

CLASS XXII. ORDER IX.

DIOECIA s. POLYGAMIA DECANDRIA. Shafts and Chives separate on different Plants, or both on the same. Ten Chives.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

MAS. Calyx 5-fidus. Petala 5. Stamina 8-10 sub nectario rotato inserta.

FEM. Calyx et petala maris. Stigmata 3. Drupa sicca, multi-locularis, submonosperma. Nux subturbinatus, obtusè angulatus. Embryo subreniformis, compressus. Cotyledones 2, æquales, latofalcatæ. Radicula supera, cylindrica, incurva.

MALE. Cup 5-cleft. Petals 5. Chives 8-10 affixed under a wheel-shaped nectary.