PLATYLOBIUM PARVIFLORUM. 
(Small Flowered Platylobium.) 
Class. Order. 
DXADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOSiE. 
1 Generic Character.— Calyx bracteate, two-lipped ; 
upper lip bifid, roundish, large. Stamens all connected. 
I legume pedicellate, compressed, flat, winged on the 
back, many-seeded.— Don’s Gardening and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub. 
Leaves ovate-lanceolate. Ovary ciliated, smoothish. 
Bracteas glabrous. Stipe of Legume exceeding the 
calyx. 
Unfortunately amongst the Leguminose plants of New Holland there 
exists a very great similarity in the colour of the flowers ; orange and yellow being 
he most prevalent. We ought not, however, on this account to reject them, if 
hey are otherwise deserving of a place in the greenhouse; for, although the 
xilours approximate so closely in different species, there is, nevertheless, a wide 
Variation in their habits of growth, in the size, and even in the proportion of the 
'orm, and in the position of the inflorescence, that greatly relieves any uniformity 
)f colour. Moreover, in forming miscellaneous collections it is easy to obtain 
flants of other colours to create variety in that respect also. 
Our reasons for bringing forward so old a species as the present are, the almost 
mmoderate quantity of flowers which it produces when properly managed, and 
he rarity of good specimens notwithstanding the years that have intervened since 
t was first known in British collections. Altogether, it is decidedly a shrub of 
10 mean appearance, and being one that by a slight modification of treatment may 
ie kept as a low dwarf bush, or induced to grow two or three feet high, main- 
taining its bushy character by numerous ramifications constantly forming, it is 
>ne that has considerable claims to the attention of cultivators. 
It is a native of the eastern coast of New Holland, and was introduced to 
he gardens of this country about 179£, but was afterwards lost, and not 
e-introduced till 1813. Perhaps its scarcity at the present time is, in some 
neasure, owing to the difficulty of propagating it from cuttings. A more certain 
vay of obtaining young plants, is to layer the ripening shoots ; but the best 
ipecimens are always produced from seeds, when they can be obtained. 
