OXYLOBIUM OBOVATUM. 
(Obovate-leaved Oxylobium.) 
Ciass. 
DECANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order 
LEGUMINOSiE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx profoundly five-cleft, 
somewhat bilabiate. Carina compressed the length of 
the wings, but about equal in length to the broad 
vexillum. Stamens inserted in the torus, or in the 
bottom of the calyx. Style ascending, crowned by a 
simple stigma. Legume sessile, or subsessile, many- 
seeded,ventricose, ovate, acute.— Don's Gard. % Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub. 
Leaves broadly obovate, cuneate, obtuse, mucronulate, 
thick, coriaceous. Racemes axillary, dense, capitate, 
many-flowered. Calyx covered with silky down, sub- 
ferruginous. Ovary four-ovuled. 
Synonyms;. — Oxylobium cuneatum. 
This plant belongs to a genus which is of great service to the cultivator of 
dwarf and free-blooming exotics, and which might be still more useful if their 
management were better attended to. They are mostly plants of good habit ; 
and, when rightly grown, blossom most prodigally. But, as with many other 
good things, they will, if neglected, straggle, become bare at the lower part of 
the branches, flower sparingly, and assume altogether so indifferent an aspect, that 
they will only appear fit to be discarded. 
Yellow and brown are the common tints of their flowers ; and they are not 
departed from in the present instance. These take, however, a variety of shades, 
and hence, the hues of our subject are not precisely like those of any other species. 
The blossoms in the genus are, moreover, differently brought together ; some being 
arranged in a pretty long and dense spike, and others growing in flatter heads. 
In 0. ohovatum, neither of these forms are at all conspicuous ; but it takes far 
more of the nature of a spike than a head or cluster. 
In the leaves of our subject, like those of 0. retusum^ there is a marked 
peculiarity by which it may be easily known. These are what botanists term 
obovate ; that is, they are ovate, but in a reversed manner ; the base or broad part 
of the ovate figure being at the top of the leaf instead of the bottom. This 
relieves it at once from all chance of getting confounded with others, while, at the 
same time, it gives it a pleasing and ornamental character. 
It was introduced from New Holland, about two years ago, by Mr. Low, of 
