Tas. 6546. 
ABRONTA .LatTIFOLIA. 
Native of Western North America. 
Nat. Ord. NyctacinEx.—Tribe M1iRaBiLiex. 
Genus Apronia, Juss. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 7.) 
Asronia latifolia ; perennis, viscoso-pubescens, caulibus prostratis crassis succu- 
lentis, foliis: carnosis late ovatis obovatis subrhombeis v. rotundatis rarius 
cordatis obtusis integerrimis, petiolo elongato crasso, pedunculis axillaribus 
folia eequantibus v. superantibus, bracteis involucrantibus 5 oblongis ovatis v. 
rotundatis floribus brevioribus, umbellis pollicem diametro densifloris, floribus 
aureis, perianthii tubo elongato superne sensim dilatato, lobis brevibus emar- 
ginatis, fructibus subrhombeis utrinque acutis coriaceis, alis lateralibus angustis 
latisve reticulatim venosis. _ 
A. latifolia, Eschscholtz in Mem. Acad. Petersb. vol. x. p. 281; Watson Bot. of 
California, vol. ii. p. 4; DC. Prodr. vol. xiii. pars 2, p. 436. 
A. arenaria, Menz. in Hook. Exot. Fl. t. 193; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. vol. ii. p. 125; 
Benth. Bot. Sulph. Voy. p. 43; DC. Prodr. vol. xiii. pars 2, p. 435. 
A very common plant on the sandy shores of Western 
North America, from Magdalena Bay in California, extending 
thence northward to Vancouver’s Island, forming large 
patches on the beach, enlivened with heads of golden 
fragrant flowers. It was discovered by Mr. Archibald 
Menzies, the surgeon and naturalist of Captain Vancouver’s 
expedition to the coast of North-Western America; who 
also first brought from Chili the seeds of Araucaria imbricata 
(in 1798), from which the two old trees now at Kew and 
Dropmore, were raised. 
The specimen here figured is from a plant that flowers 
annually in the Herbaceous Ground at Kew in the months 
of August and September. ce 
Descr. Whole plant glandular-pubescent and viscid, 
usually coated more or less with sand. Root stout, perennial, 
fusiform, fleshy. Stems many from the root, one to two 
feet long, quite prostrate, succulent, cylindrical, often as 
thick as a goose’s quill. eaves one to one and a half 
MARCH Ist, 1881. 
