D I O 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



D 1 O 



450 



preserved very well in winter, and in summer they may be 

 exposed to the open air with other green-house plants. 

 The great beauty of the bloom, and the fragrant smell, of 

 many of these plants, particularly entitle them to a place in 



collections of the shrub kind. The species are, 



1. Diosmit Oppositifolia ; Opposite-leaved Diosma. Leaves 

 subulate, acute, opposite. It rises to the height of three feet; 

 the branches are very long and slender, and are very irregu- 

 larly produced from the stem ; the leaves are placed cross- 

 wise, in pairs, and are pointed ; every evening they close up 

 to the brunches : the flowers are produced along the branches 

 from between the leaves, and in the evening, when they are 

 expanded, and the leaves closely embrace the branches, the 

 whole plant appears as if covered with spikes of white 

 flowers ; and as it continues a long time in flower, it makes 

 a fine appearance when intermixed with other exotics in the 

 open air. Native of the Cape. 



2. Diosma Hirsuta ; Hairy-leaved Diosma. Leaves linear, 

 hirsute. This sort makes a very handsome shrub, growing to 

 the height of five or six feet ; stalks woody, sending out many 

 slender branches ; the leaves come out alternately on every 

 side ; flowers in small clusters at the ends of the shoots, they 

 are white, and are succeeded by starry seed-vessels, having 

 five corners, like those of the starry Anise ; each of these 

 corners is a cell, containing one smooth, shining, oblong, 

 black seed : these seed-vessels abound with a resin which 

 affords a grateful scent, which is common to the whole plant. 

 This species frequently ripens its seeds in England; but if they 

 are not sown soon after they are ripe, they rarely grow, or at 

 least lie a whole year in the ground. Native of the Cape. 



3. Diosma Rubra ; Red-flowered Diosma. Leaves linear, 

 mucronate, smooth, keeled, (lotted in two rows beneath. 

 This plant seldom exceeds three inches in height, and 

 spreads out into many branches, with leaves resembling 

 those of Heath ; flowers in clusters at the ends of the 

 branches, like those of the second species, but smaller, and 

 the bunches not so large. The leaves, when bruised, emit 

 a strong balsamic odour. Native of the Cape. 



4. Diosma Ericoides ; Sweet-scented Diosma. Leaves 

 linear-lanceolate, convex beneath, imbricate in two rows. It 

 is a low bushy shrub, which seldom rises above two feet 

 high, but spreads out its branches far on every side ; the 

 leaves are narrow and smooth, of a light-green colour, and 

 being ranged on each side the branches, appear flat on the 

 upper and under side, and when bruised, emit a very strong 

 penetrating odour ; the flowers are produced singly from 

 between the leaves ; they are white, and tinged on their 

 upper surface. It is a native of the Cape. 



5. Diosma Capensis; Cape Diosma. Leaves linear, three- 

 sided, dotted beneath, opposite ; flowers white in a corymb. 

 The barren stamina have almost the appearance of petals. 

 Native of the Cape. 



6. Diosma Capitata ; Headed Diosma. Leaves linear, 

 imbricate, scabrous, ciliate ; flowers in spiky heads. Stem 

 proliferous, two feet high, erect, brown, having the ap- 

 pearance of a large Heath ; flowers purple, sessile, and 

 forming a head ; calix imbricate ; leaflets (the inmost and 

 true ones only five) ovate, pubescent at the edge ; petals 

 roundish, with the claws the length of the calix ; nectaries 

 very small, awnless. Native of the Cape. 



7. Diosma Unicapsularis ; One-capsuled Diosma. Leaves 

 linear-lanceolate ; capsules one-celled ; branches wand- 

 like, even ; leaves alternate, subpetioled, linear-lanceolate, 

 even above, longitudinally wrinkled underneath, smooth, 

 quite entire at the edge, but as it were serrate with pellucid 

 (lots ; peduncles lateral, few-flowered, much shorter than 

 the leaves ; flowers minute ; capsules usually solitary, bent 



in, and having a beak of the same length. Native of the 

 Cape. 



8. Diosma Latifolia; Broad-leaved Diosma. Leaves 

 ovate-crenate ; peduncles axillary, solitary ; stem villose. 

 Branches somewhat pubescent ; leaves petioled, crenulate 

 above the edge with pellucid dots, every notch dotted on 

 the disk, bluntish, scarcely acute. Native of the Cape. 



9. Diosma Marginata ; Margined Diosma. Leaves cordate- 

 attenuated, membranous-edged, erect, with the branches 

 scarcely pubescent ; leaves remote ; flowers from the upper 

 axils of the leaves, solitary or in pairs ; the peduncles 

 longer than the leaf ; stamina five, real ; nectaries five from 

 alternate filamenta, having at the tip a black larger anthe- 

 rine gland, bifid at the base, with a small yellow head. 

 Native of the Cape. 



10. Diosma Barbigera ; Bearded Diosma. Leaves cor- 

 date, stem-clasping ; petals bearded, branching. Leaves 

 sessile, opposite, mucronate, even, dotted underneath; co- 

 rymbs terminating, subsessile ; calix five-cornered ; petals 

 small, and bearded with white. Native of the Cape. 



1 1 . Diosma Tetragona ; Quadrangular Diosma. Leaves 

 cordate, retuse, folded together and keeled, ciliate ; bran- 

 ches one-flowered. This species is singular, and is distin- 

 guished from the rest by the leaves being so closely together, 

 that the whole stem is covered with them ; by the branches 

 being quadrangular and thicker toward the top ; and by the 

 large, solitary, and terminating flower. Native of the Cape. 



12. Diosma Cupressina ; Heath-leaved Diosma. Leaves 

 ovate, three-cornered, imbricate ; flowers solitary, termi- 

 nating, sessile. Branches filiform, erect, alternate, covered 

 with alternate minute leaves like those of Heath, subsca- 

 brous, sessile, erect, terminating in a coloured callosity ; 

 calix membranaceous, lanceolate, erect; petals often four, 

 obovate, twice as long as the calix, attenuated gradually 

 into the claws ; stamina erect, the length of the calix. 

 Native of the Cape. 



13. Diosma Imbricata ; Imbricated Diosma. Leaves 

 ovate, mucronate, imbricate, ciliate. The petals are purplish 

 and roundish, with the claws three times the length of the 

 calix. Native of the Cape. 



14. Diosma Lanceolata; Spear-shaped Diosma. Leaves 

 elliptic, obtuse, smooth. They have a few hairs on both 

 sides. Native of the Cape. 



15. Diosma Ciliata ; Ciliated Diosma. Leaves lanceo- 

 late, ciliate, wrinkled. Petals oblong, with the claws 

 scarcely longer than the calix. Native of the Cape. 



16. Diosma Crenata; Crenated Diosma. Leaves lanceolate- 

 oval, opposite, glandular-crenate ; flowers solitary. Leaves 

 of the calix subulate and crenate. Native of the Cape. 



17. Diosma Uniflora ; One-lowered Diosma. Leaves 

 ovate, oblong ; flowers solitary, terminating. Leaflets of 

 the calix ovate, large, and almost broader than the leaves. 

 Native of the Cape. 



18. Diosma Pulchella ; Oval-leaved Diosma. Leaves 

 ovate, obtuse, glandular-crenate ; flowers twin, axillary. 

 The flowers are hermaphrodite, but the fruit is three-celled. 

 The horns of the gerraen are each of them terminated by 

 two glands. The Hottentots use the leaves of this species 

 dried and powdered, under the name of bucku, to mix with 

 the grease with which they anoint themselves, which gives 

 them so rank an odour, that the chevalier Thunberg declares 

 he could not bear the smell of the men who drove his wag- 

 gon. Native of the Cape. 



19. Diosma Asiatica ; Asiatic Diosma. Leaves lanceolate, 

 alternate ; racemes subterminating. It is a small tree, six 

 feet high, spreading, and very much branched ; leaves quite 

 entire, smooth ; flowers yellow, in compound racemes ; an- 



