GASTROLOBIUM SPINOSUM. 
(Spinous-leaved Gastrolobium.) 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOS M. 
Generic Character, — Calyx five-cleft, bilabiate, 
bractless. Petals about equal in length. Ovary two- 
I seeded, pedicellate. Style subulate. Stigma simple. 
\\ Legume ventricose. Seeds strophiolate.' — Don’s Gard. 
and Bot. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub. 
Leaves nearly sessile, opposite, smooth, very broadly 
heart-shaped, with six equidistant spinous teeth at the 
margin on each side, and a terminal one. Flowers in 
clusters at the extremity of each shoot. Corolla with 
an orange-yellow vexillum, and reddish-purple wings. 
Of all the plants of this tribe that we are acquainted with, few admit of being 
more easily reduced to handsome proportions, or have a habit and foliage so neat 
and unique as this. With a degree of strength and robustness unusual amongst 
the leguminous plants now abounding in such plentiful variety in our greenhouses, 
it combines broad and conspicuous leaves, so markedly different in their outline 
to every other of the same class within the sphere of our knowledge, that whilst 
they attract notice by their novelty, neatness, and amplitude, they at the same time 
furnish a distinction so prominently perceptible, that the most cursory observer 
can never be at a loss to distinguish the plant from those that most nearly 
resemble it. 
Till the development of flowers in the spring of the present year afforded the 
chance of referring it with certainty to its proper station, it was cultivated and 
generally known as Chorozema oppositifolia , a mistake which most probably arose 
from the analogy displayed in its general features to those of the stronger- 
growing and larger-foliaged species of that genus. However this may be, there 
can now no longer be a doubt of its incorrectness, and the consequent necessity 
of abrogating it. 
Seeds were imported from the Swan River colony and distributed by Capt, 
Mangles a few years since ; and Mr. Young, of the Epsom Nursery, was fortunate 
enough to raise a number of specimens which have since been multiplied by 
cuttings, and distributed amongst the principal metropolitan establishments. 
