STRELITZIA REGIN.E, 



OR, QUEEN-PLANT. 



A his is one of the many lovely productions imported from the Cape of Good Hope, introduced 

 into our gardens by Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K. B. the illustrious and most indefatigable pro- 

 moter of the science of Natural History. Its leaves are coriaceous and spoon-shaped, often undu- 

 lated at the base, inwardly of a deep green, and outwardly beautifully glaucous. The flowers are 

 of a bright orange, tripetalled, enclosed at first by two long membranous calyx leaves, which drop 

 as the flower rises from the common spatha, and these appear in succession, each retiring back- 

 ward, to give place to other flowers. These three petals of the corolla encompass the beautiful 

 nectarium, which is diphyllous, that is, composed of two leaves, one shaped like an anchor ex- 

 teriourly, and hollowed interiourly, inclosing in a groove the five stamina, remarkable for long 

 anthers, through which duplicature also passes the style, whose triangular and pointed stigma, 

 finally reaching beyond the bifid end of this part of the nectary, makes the anchor resemblance 

 perfect. The other petal of the nectary is smaller, shaped like a cowl, and hooked. Nature 

 here seems to aim at deception, the beaked spatha, upon its long and round stalk, or scape, 

 gives the similitude of the head of some species of crane, and the flowers above feign its top- 

 knot; and even the expert botanist at first sight might imagine that the purple nectary on one 

 side was a stamen, with its barbed anther, and on the other the stigma, as in the orchis tribe : but 

 upon dissection all this confusion vanishes, and it easily arranges under Class V. Pentandria, 

 Order I. Monogynia, of Linnaeus, each flower possessing five stamina, and one pistillum. We 

 have been so fortunate as to be favoured with the following Verses on this Plant by the present 

 Poet Laureate. 



On Afric's southern steep, where Gama's sail 



To the tempestuous clime was first unfiirl'd, 

 Courting with ample sweep the dangerous gale, 



And op'd to Europe's sons the ^Eastern World, 



Heroes, beyond the Demi-Gods of Greece, 



By Jason led, and urg'd by Orpheus' lyre, 

 Seeking, through wilder seas a richer fleece, 



While warlike Camoens* wak'd the epic wire. 



Oft as the Genius of the stormy main 



From the high promontory view'd the wave, 

 He saw with daring prow Britannia's train, 



The angry winds and mountain surges brave, 



George's parental sway and Albion's laws 



Spreading where Ammon's empire never spread, 

 To Thames' blest stream her stores while Commerce draws 



From Ganges' Bramin groves and Indus' bed : 



Sudden, a buoyant Ve^el meets his eyes, 



Not launch'd by thirst of wealth, or hope of fame, 

 Science alone directs the bold emprise, 



Her eye their cynosure, her smile their aim. 



Her favourite Votary from the lap of ease, 



From Pleasure's syren voice, and Fortune's store, 

 Steers by unpeopled coasts, through pathless seas, 



The expanded Scenes of Nature to explore. 



* A famous Portuguese Poet, Author of the Lousiad. 



