PLATE DXCVIII. 



B.ECKIA VIRGATA. 



Twiggy Bceckia. 



CLASS VIII. ORDER I. 



OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Eight Chives. One Pointal. 



ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Calyx 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-petala. Capsula 

 3- seu 4-locularis, polysperraa, calyce tecta. 



Cup 5-toothed. Blossom of 5 petals. Fruit 3- or 

 4-celled, many-seeded, covered by the cup. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



B jeckia. foliis lineari-lanceolatis pellucido-punc- 

 * * tatis, pedunculis axillaribus umbelliferis. 



Leptospermura virgatum. Forster. 



Bjeckia with linear-lanced leaves with transpa- 

 rent dots } the flowerstalks axillary, and 

 bearing umbels. 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 

 I . A petal. , 



2* The chives and pointal. 



3. The same shown from the under side. 



I 



Island of New Caledonia, celebrated 

 f, and honest disposition of the men, j 



see 



somethi 



this plant with many others was discovered by the two Forsters, who accompanied him as naturalists, 

 and is published in their Genera of Plants gathered in the Islands of the South Seas as a species of 

 Leptospermum. Dr. Smith, however, justly observes, that neither the number of stamens, the fruit, 

 nor the opposite leaves, agree at all with that genus, but most naturally with the Linnean genus Baeckia, 

 of which several species have lately been found in New Holland. The stamens vary from eight to ten; 

 the germen three-celled, with about sixteen seeds in each \ but how many of these ripen we have had 

 no opportunity of observing. The leaves are not absolutely without nerves, as described by Forster; 



specimen 



become drj 

 Mr. Milne 



In the specimens with which we have been favoured by 



may be occasioned by this plant's being yet so young, being raised only three years ago in the collection 



Marqi 



The time of flowering is October. 



Will 



denow we cannot quote, his descriptions being from two plants of very different genera jumbled together 



species 



Tn the 27*7th Number of The Botanical Magazine the writer, endeavouring to destroy the authority of the figure of Yucca 

 gloriosa in The Botanist's Repository, vol. vii., and establish that of his own as the first, says that our figure canuot be- 

 long to that plant, in which Xi the trunk reaches only from six inches to two feet (Miller faya in his Dictionary, from two 

 feet and a half to three feet !) in height, and *here the leaves are quite entire ; but to Y.'aloifelia, whose trunk reaches 

 from 6 to 10 feet in height, and the leaves have a finely crenulate edging." Our drawing was taken at Lord Boston's 

 from a plant only ten feet high, the stem little more than three, and the leaves not in the least crenated ! The panicle 

 m our hgure i* a!so said to be much closer than in that, with its branches likewise more lax and drooping. Wirh all these 

 contradictory qualities, however, it very much resembles Barreliere's figure of the same, which the writer himself has 

 quoted, and m which the curvature of the buds, which be holds to be so extraordinary, is also conspicuous. No less 

 curious is h.s objection to the tinge of purple on the flowers. Could it be possible that he had not seen either the plant 

 that he was describing or the drawing of it } (Sec the figure in The Botanical Magazine.) But we leave the Yuccas to soeati 

 for themselves. The filamentosa he has also complimented with five feet of a stem (Botanical Magaz 

 quoted Michaux's authority for it, although that author expressly savs that it is stemtaul 



