2J7 
STATICE ARBOREA. 
(arboreus statice.) 
class. order. 
PENTANDRIA. PENTAGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
PLUMBAGINACE^. 
Generic .Character Calyx two parted, fimnel-sliaped, plaited, membranous. Petals five. Capsule 
one celled, and one valved. Seed solitary; 
Specific Character. — A luxuriant branching shrub, upwards of six feet high. Leaves waved at the 
margin, oblong, obtuse, smooth, mid rib strong, veins mostly alternate and horizontal, upper surface 
a glaucous green, beneath paler. Flower Stalk two edged, much winged. Bracts oblong, rather 
acute. Flowers very numerous, produced on a loose spreading panicle. Calyx lavender colour, 
persistent. Corolla consisting of five snow white, rather acute segments. 
Statice Arborea is one of those plants of which no drawing can convey an 
adequate idea, in truth, it is almost impossible for any artist to give the light and airy 
elegance of its widely spreading panicles of flowers, and it is not only in the 
individual panicle that its extreme beauty consists, but in the profuse manner 
in which those panicles (each containing many hundreds of flowers) are produced, 
covering the whole surface of the plant with masses of blossom. It is certainly one 
of the most interesting permanent Conservatory plants that has ever been brought 
into this country ; " it is a truly good plant'' 
It was first discovered by Mr. Webb, in TenerifFe, and it is not a little 
remarkable that Humboldt and Bonpland, who carefully botanized that island, and 
published the result of their botanical labours, do not record a single species of 
Statice in the list of plants found by them, growing in Teneriffe. It is a luxuriant 
growing shrub, attaining the height of six feet or more, branching in every direction, 
and covered with widely spreading panicles of flowers, the stems of which are three 
feet or more in length ; the leaves are ten inches long, and are of a beautiful glaucous 
green colour ; the flowers, which are a showy white, issue from a bright lavender- 
coloured calyx, which calyx is persistent, and preserves its colour for a very long- 
time, and every morning produces a fresh supply of white flowers, which last only 
one day, folding up into the bottom of the calyx at night ; but this gives even a 
greater interest to the whole, as the beautiful colour of the calyx of the past flowers 
finely contrasts with those unexpanded, and the fresh-opened ones. As a specimen 
plant in a pot, as a Conservatory plant planted out in a bed, or as a summer border 
VOL. IV.— NO. XLVI. JF F 
