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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The parts of the flowers that are conspicuous in our 

 Eucalypts and Acacias are the parts that are more or less con- 

 cealed in many of our cultivated blossoms. Included in the 

 same order is a gigantic bean (Entada scandens) whose pods are 

 sometimes 6 ft. to 8 ft. in length. The individual seeds are often 

 hollowed, mounted with silver, and converted into fancy match- 

 boxes. Very many of the papilionaceous section of the Legu- 

 minosae produce handsome flowers, such as Indigofera, 

 Dillwynias, Pultenceas, and Swainsonias. Many of the latter 

 are remarkable for spiral or curved lower petals and beautiful 

 blossoms, but are frequently deleterious. Besides these there 

 are others equally attractive in almost endless variety. But 

 probably none are more charming than Clianthus Dampieri, 

 Sturt's Desert Pea, whose silver-green foliage and large, 

 bright, gorgeous blossoms render it peculiarly conspicuous and 

 attractive. 



Next in importance, when we consider the number of species, 

 are the Proteads, than which, perhaps, no order of indigenous 

 plants has greater interest either for the gardener or the botanist. 

 The name bestowed on this order (from the South African Protect 

 of Linnasus) is singularly appropriate, for these plants exhibit a 

 variability which excels even the mutable characteristic for 

 which the mythical sea-god was so remarkable. Probably the 

 commonest and most widely distributed Proteads are the native 

 Honeysuckles {Banksia spp.). They owe their singular popular 

 name probably to the fact that they, in common with many 

 other proteaceous plants, yield a copious supply of nectar. While 

 the aborigines greedily suck the flowers to obtain this sweet 

 fluid, yet with Europeans its use is frequently attended with 

 feelings of nausea and headache. Dryandra plumosa is often 

 cultivated for the sake of its large cylindrical flower- clusters and 

 its deeply serrated and peculiar foliage. Both flowers and 

 foliage of this unique plant will keep almost indefinitely. Of 

 Grevilleas there are probably over 160 varieties, but as yet only 

 about half-a-dozen species are in cultivation. These include the 

 stately G. robusta, or Silky Oak, as it is popularly called. Its 

 immense comb-shaped trusses of bright orange flowers render the 

 tree a strikingly conspicuous object in the landscape. These 

 blossoms have sometimes been fancifully compared to flame, and 

 have earned for this species the popular name of " Flame tree," 



