PROTEA CYNAROIDES. ARTICHOKE-LIKE FLOWERED PROTEA. 
Class VI. TETRANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, PROTEAC^E. 
j Character of the Genus, Protea. Involucrum imbricated, many-leaved, persistent, surrounding 
i the receptacle, which is many-flowered, and beset with persistent shortened palese. Perigone divisible into 
I two portions, unequal, the three segments of the broader lip cohering. Stamens four, inserted into the 
I concave tops of the segments of the perigone. Scales four, hypogynous. Ovary one-celled, containing one 
ovule. Style subulate; stigma narrower, cylindrical. Nut one-seeded, clothed throughout with beard-like 
I hairs, and terminated by the persistent style, resembling a tail. 
Description of the Species Protea Cynaroides. A low shrub, the stem being rarely two 
feet, erect, simple, wrinkled. Leaves alternate, petiolate, petioles roundish, wrinkled, devoid of hairs, about 
an inch in length, the lamina smooth, spreading, entire, roundish, or obscurely mucronate, shining. Flower 
a terminal capitula, very large, of an ovate form, the numerous scales of the involucre progressively becoming 
larger from the base to the summit, oblong, acute, all of them covered with a silky down, those near the 
base brownish, the upper ones of a delicate pink, deeper on the inner side especially at the margins. 
Receptacle flattish. Perigon with a long tube, separable at the top into two lips, unequal, entirely clothed 
with a white down. Stamens four, inserted into the concave tips of the perigone, filaments short, anthers 
linear, or tapering, yellow. Ovary oblong, hairy, style one, awl-shaped, stigma slender, projecting beyond 
the perigon, of a bright red colour. Nut hairy, crowned by the persistent style. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. This most magnificent species, even of the superb genus 
Protea, is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, growing on the sides and summits of mountains. It is, 
indeed, a wonderful thing to see a flower of its size, nearly as large as a child’s head borne on so diminutive 
a stem, for it is sometimes scarcely one foot in height. Protea grandiflora which comes nearest this in 
the size of the flower, has a tall branched stem. Protea pulchra and Protea speciosa, have likewise 
large heads of flowers, yet far inferior to the present subject, the dimensions of which cannot be estimated 
from the plate, as the figure is reduced to at least half the natural size. A question may be asked, what 
purpose does this extraordinary magnificence in the flower serve ? It is at present impossible to answer as 
no direct use is made of any part of the numerous species of Protea, except for firewood ; yet the flowers of 
Protea melliflera contain much sweet juice, which would be acceptable to the bees if they grew in the open air. 
Common as Proteaceous plants are in Australia, not one species of the genus Protea has been found there ; 
indeed, they are strictly confined to the Cape of Good Hope, save one — Protea abyssinica, mentioned in 
Bruce’s Travels, quarto edition, vol. V, appendix, p. 52, with a plate. 
Introduction ; Where grown; Culture. This plant was introduced into Britain, in 1792, by 
Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith nursery. It is a hardy greenhouse plant. “The best soil is light 
turfy loam, mixed with rather more than one third of fine sand ; the pots must be well-drained with broken 
potsherds. Care must be taken not to let them droop for want of water, as the young roots are of a very 
fleshy substance, and soon suffer by too much drought, as well as by too much wet, so that they seldom re- 
cover, if suffered to flag too much. They also like to be placed where they may have a free circulation of 
air, as they cannot bear to be crowded, like some more rigid-growing plants. Ripened cuttings, taken off 
at a joint, and pared quite smooth, will strike root, if planted thinly in pots of sand placed under a hand- 
glass, but not plunged: the glasses must be often taken off, to give them air.”* 
Professor Burnett, in his introductory Lecture delivered in Chelsea Garden, says “Beings so curiously 
and wonderfully made as plants — being of such surpassing beauty and variety in their external forms, and de- 
monstrative of such astounding skill in their internal mechanism, cannot but have some important functions to 
perform ; and the investigation of them is the province of vegetable physiology. The functions of plants, I 
need scarcely say are most curious and important, not only with reference to their own well-being, but in an 
equal degree to both animals and men. Their influence upon the atmosphere and upon the soil are among 
the most extensive and important of their functions. The renovation of the air by plants, when rendered ir- 
respirable by breathing or combustion, although at one time questioned, is a fact now indisputably established, 
and their influence on its humidity, and on the salubrity of the soil, is much greater than is usually 
inconceived. That swampy aguish districts have been drained and rendered salubrious by the judicious 
planting of trees, and that the humidity and temperature of various countries, such especially as our 
The Botanist. 
