PROTEACEAE 149 



Plate 30. 



A. Protea scolymocephala L. With visiting beetle (Mylabris cincta). 



I. Flowering twig. 2. Bud. 3. Flower, open. (Note the three segments joined 

 to the tip.) 



B. Protea speciosa L. 



1. Capitulum and a few leaves. 2. Achene. 3. Achene in long, section, without 

 the style. 



C. Protea tenuifolia R. Br. 



Protea*. 

 (Figs. 76—78 a.) 



The genus Protea includes some of the most conspicuous trees and shrubs 

 of South Western Cape Colony and has at the same time a more general 

 distribution in Africa than any other of the larger genera of the family. Only 

 Faurea, with 14 species, approaches it in this respect. The systematic characters 

 of the florets and fruits are so typical and constant, that the genus is easily 

 recognised, and we are well informed with regard to its distribution even in 

 the less known regions beyond the Zambesi, but the use of vernacular names 

 has led to various erroneous statements concerning the distribution of its 

 species. The common sugar bush, Protea mellifera, is one of the most widely 

 spread Cape species, occurring everywhere in the South West and extending 

 eastwards as far as KafFraria, but the " suikerbosjes " of the Transvaal and 

 Rhodesia, for which various travellers quote the same name, belong to other 

 species. 



There are about 25 species of Protea in Angola, Rhodesia and Eastern 

 Africa, one of them, viz. P. abyssinica, extending from Rhodesia to 

 Abyssinia. 



The largest flower-head is that of Protea cynaroides, which measures not 

 rarely 12 inches in diameter or even more. (Plate 22.) 



The largest tree of the genus is P. grandiflora, commonly called the 

 wagenboom. 



In the South Western districts of the Cape most species of Protea flower 

 at the beginning or in the middle of winter, while in the eastern and northern 

 parts the flowering season is spring and summer. Even the same species 

 adapts itself in this respect to the different climatic conditions, for while Protea 

 cynaroides flowers on the Cape Peninsula in March and April, it does so at 

 George, which is about 200 miles to the East, in October and November. 



Protea scolymocephala. This species forms small shrublets, 2 — 3 feet high, 

 in the sandy tracts of the Cape Flats and their neighbourhood, the involucral 

 bracts being generally whitish green. 



* Named by Linnaeus after the mythical Proteus of the ancients (famous for his 

 power of assuming many different forms) on account of the great diversity of habit in the 

 species of this group. 



