Diastella.| | PROTEACE& (Phillips & Hutchinson). 651 
tapering into the style. Ovule 1,pendulous. Fruit a yellowish-white, 
ellipsoid, beaked nut with a thin reticulated pericarp. Seed solitary ; 
testa membranous, hyaline ; embryo straight ; cotyledons large, flat 
and thin, broad ; radicle very small. 
Erect or prostrate undershrubs or shrubs 1-8 ft. high; branches pilose or 
villous ; leaves crowded or more often lax, elliptic, spathulate or suborbicular, 
rarely ericoid, entire or sometimes minutely toothed at the apex, usually hairy ; 
flowers in terminal solitary sessile subglobose or obconic bracteate heads ; involucral 
bracts never or only slightly exceeding the flowers, ciliate, mostly coloured ; floral 
bracts linear or filiform, densely villous ; receptacle flat or slightly concave long- 
setose with fine rust-coloured hairs. 
Distrip. Species 5, confined to the South-Western portion of Cape Colony. 
Leaves flat, linear-oblong to orbicular, 14 lin. broad or 
more ; perianth-limb villous : 
Heads rather small, about 3 in. in diam. or less (rarely 
more), mostly few- (rarely about 45-)flowered ; 
involucral bracts obtuse or gradually acuminate, 
never cuspidate : 
Leaves crowded and more or less closely imbricate ; 
heads 6-8 lin. in diam. ; perianth-limb long 
villous ae es mise Pe oes 
Leaves laxly arranged and mostly spreading ; heads 
about 5 lin. in diam. ; perianth-limb rather 
shortly or long-villous : 
Leaves rarely over $ in. long, with a minute 
callous entire apex ; a low spreading shrub .. (2) serpyllifolia. 
Leaves about 3 in. long, with a conspicuous callous 
apex, the latter sometimes bifid; an erect 
shrub 7-8 ft, high is ae i 
Heads rather large, about ? in. in diam., many-flowered 
(about 50); involucral bracts mostly cuspidate- 
acuminate ; leaf-apex often toothed ive ao 
Leaves subacicular, less than 4 lin. broad; perianth- 
limb glabrous ee se ae i 
(1) bryiflora. 
(3) myrtifolia. 
(4) parilis. 
(5) ericeefolia. 
1. D. bryiflora (Knight, Prot. 62); a small erect shrub about 
4 ft. high ; branches softly tomentose, at length becoming pubescent ; 
leaves 3-6 lin. long, 14-3 lin. broad, elliptic, obtuse or rounded at 
the apex, rounded or slightly narrowed at the base, rigidly coria- 
ceous, densely hirsute, becoming glabrous with age ; heads sessile, 
terminal, solitary, 4-54 lin. long, 6-9 lin. in diam.; involucral 
bracts 3-4 lin. long, lanceolate to oblong, obtuse, pilose, ciliate ; 
-perianth-segments joined at the base, at length becoming free, 4 lin. 
long, linear, villous with long hairs ; limb ? lin. long, oblong, sub- 
acute, villous; anthers sessile, } lin. long, linear; apical gland 
1 lin. long, ovate, obtuse ; ovary } lin. long, oblong in outline, pubes- 
cent ; style 43 lin. long, filiform, very shortly pubescent on the lower 
half; stigma } lin. long, cylindric, obtuse. Mimetes thymeleoides, 
R. Br. in Trans. Linn. Soc. x. 109 ; Roem. & Schultes, Syst. Veg. iii. 
382; Meisn. in DC. Prodr. xiv. 265. Leucadendron thymeleoides, 
Berg. in Vet. Acad. Handl. Stockh, 1766, 324; Berg. Deser, Fl. Cap.19. 
Protea thymeleoides, Poir. Encyel. Suppl.iv. 568, P. pubera, Thunb. 
