456 HISTORY Ot 



BOTANY. 



As to do justice to merit should ever be the 

 object of an Author, I shall out of respect to 

 Sir Joseph Banks, describe those productions of 

 nature, which from the same cause Linnaeus has 

 named Banksia. 



Four sorts of Banksia are described in the 

 Supplementum Plantarum of Linnaeus, of which 

 the Banksia Sevrata is the principal. 



BANKSIA SEVRATA. 



This is the most stately of the genus. Its 

 trunk is thick and rugged. Leaves alternate, 

 standing thick about the ends of the branches 

 on short footstalks, narrow, obtuse, strongly 

 serrated, smooth and of a bright green colour 

 above, beneath opaque and whitish, with a 

 strong rib running through their middle. A 

 very large cylindrical spike of flowers termi- 

 nates each branch. Most of the flowers are 

 abortive, a few only in each spike producing 

 ripe seed. The form of the capsules may be 

 understood from the figure, which represents a 

 whole spike in fruit, about a quarter the natural 

 size. The capsules are covered with thick down. 

 The plant, when it is in flower, shews the 

 curved position in which the style is held by the 



