520 Note upon a hardy Plant, called Clianthut puniceus. 



It was, then, with no little pleasure that I recognized this most 

 beautiful but little known plant, in a specimen which was brought 

 me by William Leveson Gower, Esq. from his garden at Titsey 

 Place, near Godstone, in May of the present year. It had been 

 raised from seeds gathered by the Missionaries in New Zealand, 

 where it is said to be called " Kowaingutukaka," or Parrot's Bill, 

 and to grow to the size of a large tree ; in England, however, 

 it has not reached beyond 4 feet in height. 



When planted in a peat border in the open air, where it succeeds 

 the best, it forms a half-herbaceous evergreen shrub, not very unlike 

 an evergreen Vetch, or more correctly speaking, a scarlet Colutea, 

 (Sutherlandia frutescens). Its leaves are smooth, pinnated, and of 

 rather a succulent texture, consisting of about eight pairs with an 

 odd one. The stem is entirely free from furrows or angles, and is 

 about as thick as a goose's quill. The flowers grow in oval clusters, 

 hanging down from the axils of the leaves upon the lateral branches ; 

 each flower is rather more than three inches from the tip of the 

 standard to the tip of the keel ; the petals are of a light bright rich 

 crimson, without any mottling or marking ; the standard, which is 

 of an ovate-lanceolate figure, and much tapered to the point, is re- 

 flexed so as almost to lie back upon the calyx ; the wings are very 

 much shorter than the keel, the point of which is so much prolonged 

 as to look like the beak of some bird, although it must be confessed 

 not much like that of a parrot. The flowers are succeeded by 

 brownish black pods, two inches and a half long, seated on a slender 

 stipe, and convex on the upper instead of the lower edge : so that 

 unless attention is paid to their manner of growth, it would seem as 

 if the seeds grew to the lower instead of the upper edge. They are 

 covered all over inside with a delicate cottony down, in which lie 

 the small kidney-shaped seeds, of a dull yellowish-ochre colour, 

 mottled with small dark brown blotches and speckles. 



A good idea of the appearance of the plant will be obtained from 

 the accompanying figure, from the pencil of Miss Drake. 



