PLATE CCCXLIX. 
PROTEA DECUMBENS. 
Slender-ftemed Protea. 
; GLASS IV... OR DER -t. 
TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Four Chives. One Pointal. 
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Coxotta 4-fida feu 4-petala. Antherz lineares, Biossom 4-cleft or 4-petalled. Tips linear, in- 
infertz petalis infra apicem. ferted into the petals below the point. 
CaxyxX proprius nullus. Semina folitaria. Cur, proper, none. Seeds folitary. 
See Prorea rormosa, Pl. XVII. Vol. L. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Protea foliis bi-pinnatis, filiformibus; capitulis Protea with doubly winged leaves, thread- 
terminalibus, feffilibus ; floribus incarnatis, fhaped ; {mall heads of flowers fitting clofe 
braéteolatis; caule tenue, decumbente. on the ends of the branches; flowers fieth- 
coloured with fmall floral leaves; ftem 
flender and bending downwards. 
a ET NTE I IA 
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE, 
1. A Leaf. 
2. One of the Floral Leaves, magnified. 
3. A Floret, complete. 
4, One of the Petals, with its Chive at the point, magnified. 
5, The Pointal, with the Summit detached and magnified. 
A EY TT ae 
Faom the great number of new fpecies of the divided leaved Proteas, we are led to conjecture, that 
they ate as numerous as thofe with entire leaves. The P. decumbens, from the different fpecumee® 
we have feen, appears to branch into many varieties; fome with hairy leaves and ftems, fome with 
very Clofe thick fet leaves, and fome, with both ftems and leaves, quite fmooth. They are all, never- 
thelefs, very flender ftemed; and, there is little doubt but, in their natural flate, they reft on the 
ground; although in the fafhion we train them here, they have the appearance of being erect. _ 
fpecies is found at a confiderable diftance from the Cape Town, on the summits of dry fandy ee 
wherefore, it muft be kept in the moft airy part of the green-houfe, and watered but feldom. ps 
ftem does not grow more than eighteen inches long, and frequently flowers, as was: the cafe m re 
prefent inftance, when not more than twelve. It is propagated, readily, from cuttings made ae 
month of May, if treated in the method already direéted for the increafe of thefe plants. The page 
in which it fhould be planted is, a light fandy bright loam, Our drawing was taken 0 the mon “ 
July, 1802, from a plant in the Hibbertian Colle@ion, to which it was introduced by Mr. Niven, 
the year 1800. 
