irure 
Gardens, in April, 1850. 
An erect shrub, 4 to 5 feet high, the branches pale brown, shaggy. Leaves leathery, cordate, sessile, concave, 
waved and rather minutely toothed at the edge, glaucous green, distinctly reticulated both above and below. From the 
axils of the upper leaves the flowers appear in copious clusters : at first surrounded by imbricated deciduous bracts. 
Sepals red, unequal linear, smooth. Style twice as long as the longest sepals. — Bot. Mag., t. 4528. 
has 
ted 
vicinity of London, it was customary to estimate the value of public and private collections by the number and rarity of 
the species, without regard to the circumstance of their producing fine flowers. Perhaps no plants were m higher repute 
than those of the family to which this belongs, as is amply shown by the early volumes of the Botanical Magazine. 
Within the last twenty or thirty years, however, the cultivation of ProUame has declined ; the species have gradually 
disappeared from most of the private collections around London ; and but few nurserymen now take interest in them. 
This change may be partly owing to the supposed difficulty of preserving them, for under certain c.roumsUnces the 
plants suddenly die, even when in vigorous health. In the Koyal Gardens Protean* have maintained their place, more 
especially those that are natives of Australia ; and as there are some at this time between forty and fifty years of age, 
and others of a large size half that age, it may be inferred that Proteace* are not so short-hved ,n a state of cultivation 
as they are generally supposed to be. Within our recollection it was the common practice to grow them >n some kind of 
%ht soil, usually peat The hygrometric condition of such soil is easily affected by changes of the surrounding 
atmosphere ; becoming quickly dry during hot weather, and apt to become sodden with moisture m winter, and the 
spongioles or rootlets of Proteacece are very sensitive to either extreme ; the use of light soil therefore, ,n our opinion, 
accounts for the frequent sudden death of plants of this kind. We use good yellow loam to which, or small plants we 
add a little sharp sand. In shifting or repotting a plant we make it a rule to keep the ball of roots a little elevated above 
the surface of the new mould, to prevent any superabundance of water from lodging round the base of the stem. In the 
