PLATE CXXX. 



CERBERA UNDULATA. 



Waved-leaved Cerbera. 



CLASS V. ORDER I. 

 PENTJNDRIA MONOGYNU. Five Chives. One Pointal. 



GENERIC CH 



Calyx. Perianthium pentaphyllum, acumina- 

 tum; foliolis ovato-lanceolatis. 



Corolla monopetala, infundibuliformis; tubus 

 clavatus; limbus magnus, quinqucpartitus; 

 laciniis obliquis, obtuiis, latere altero magis 

 gibbis; os tubi quinquangulare, quinque- 

 dentatum, ftellato-connivens. 



Stamina. Filamenta quinque, fubulata, in me- 

 dio tubi. Anthera: erefta;, conniventes. 



Pistillum. Germen fubrotundum. Stylus fi- 



liformis, brevis. Stigma capitatum, bilo- 



bum. 

 Pericarpiusi. Drupa maxima, fubrotunda, car- 



nofa, a latere fulco longitudinali excavata, 



punctifque duobus. 

 Semen. Nux bilocularis, quadrivalvis, retufa. 



ARACTEK. 



Empalement. Cup five leaved, tapering to a 

 point; leaflets between egg and lance- 

 lhaped. 



Blossom one petal, funnel-fhaped; tube club- 

 fliaped; border large, five divifions; feg- 

 ments oblique, obtul'e, thicker edged or. 

 one fide; mouth of the tube five-angled, 

 five toothed, approaching together in the 

 form of a ftar. 



Chives. Five threads, nwl-fhaped, in the mid- 

 dle of the tube. Tips upright, and ap- 

 proaching. 



Pointal. Seed-bud roundifh. Shaft thread- 

 lluped, and fhort. Summit headed, two- 

 lobed. 



Seed-vessel. A large pulpy fruit, nearly round, 

 flefhy, hollowed on the fide by a longitudi- 

 nal furrow, and with two punctures. 



Seed. Nut two cells, four valves, and bluntly 

 dented at the end. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Cerbera foliis lanceolatis, ulrinque attenuatis, un- 

 dulatis; cymis ramolis, divaricatis, axilla- 

 ribus. 



Cerbera with lance fhaped leaves tapered to both 

 ends, and waved; tufts of flowers branch- 

 ing into various directions, and growing 

 from the foot-flalks of the leaves clofe to 



the Item, 



•««*- 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1. The Empalement, magnified. 



2. The Bloffom cut open, with the Chives as they ftand in the tube, magnified. 



3. The Empalement, with the pointal after the bloffom has fallen off, magnified. 



4. The Seed-bud, magnified. 



This confpicuoufly handfome plant was introduced by W. Forfyth, Efq. to the Chellea Gardens in the 

 year 1/82, from the illand of Bourbon, now the Ifle de la Revolution, near the coaft of Madagafcar, 

 in the Indian Ocean. It grows to a very confiderable height, perfectly ftraight, and poliihed in the 

 ftem, fomething like the Bamboo Cane, from which appearance, till it flowered, it had gone by the 

 name of the fifhing rod plant. It mutt be kept in the bark bed of the hothoufe in rich mould, and 

 fliould be removed from its pot but feldom, the roots being extremely tender and brittle. The pro- 

 pagation is flow and difficult, as well from the great tendency the part has to rot, where cut, as from 

 the unfrequency of its throwing out any fide fhoots from the Item. Our drawing was made in July 

 this year, at the Hammerfmith nurfery; though we understand it flowered in the extenfive collection 

 of the Right Hon. the Earl of Tankerville at Walton-upon-Thames, fome years fince. 



Having followed Willdenow, rather than Jacquin, in the Generic name of this plant, our reafon 

 is, each fpecies which has hitherto been thrown to this Genus, fince its firll formation, might well 

 make a diliinct one; if every generic or even effential, character, was to be critically attended to. 

 The fruit forming the principal effential character, a fpecimen of which we have feen, containing two 

 large feeds like C. Manghas, determined us in our adoption. 



The defcriptions and figures of the two plants, given by rrofeffor Jacquin in his Icon. rar. 2, and 

 Collect. 4, under the genus Ochrofia, are, we conceive, onlv different fpecimens of our plant; and are 

 both, as well as Diyander's critique on Gmelin (fee Linn. Irani". Vol. II. p. 227) defective; neither of 

 them having feen but dried fpecimens, without the fruit; as in this natural order of plants, the flow- 

 ers being mofily flefhv, many of the principal characters are deftroyed in the procefs of drying; and 

 of courfc, in luch cale, mutt lead to error. Jacquin's character of maculattt, quoted by Willdenow as 

 a fpecific title, though he has rejected the Generic, we fuppofe, mutt have been taken from the fmall 

 blotches on the lower, and which fometimes pervade the upper furface of the leaves, but found only 

 when in the laft fiate of decay, or when artificially dried to preferve them; as by the preffure necef- 

 farily employed to that end, the waved, and molt oltcnlible character of the living plant, is done away. 

 As to the C. parviflora of Forlter being the fame, as cither, the Ochrofia borbonica or O. maculata of 

 Jacquin, we mult beg leave to diffent from the levcre critictfer of Gmelin; upon whole authority, ne- 

 vertheless. Widdenow has been led to exclude, even as a Ivixmim, the O borbonica of Prof. Jacquin, 

 Which pel linos, if it were not for the iucreafing of Genera, ought to be the name of the plant. 



