Plate 47. 
GOLDEN-PLUMED COCK’S-COMB. 
Celosia fcristataj aurea . 
We are indebted to Mr. Turner, of Slough, for the opportu¬ 
nity of presenting our readers with a portrait of one of the mo¬ 
derate-sized plumes of this very ornamental plant, which, though 
an old inhabitant of our gardens, is not nearly so well known as 
its merits deserve. 
The plant is a tender annual. The specimen from which our 
figure was taken was about three feet in height, branched to 
the base, and forming a bushy mass a yard or more in diameter, 
each of the numerous stems and branches being terminated by 
one of the pyramidal feathery heads. The stems are branched, 
of a very pale-green colour, and striated, bearing stalked leaves 
four or five inches long, of an elliptic-lanceolate figure, attenu- 
ately acuminated, wavy at the margin, and of a pale or yel¬ 
lowish-green colour. The inflorescence is compoundly pyra¬ 
midal, terminating the main stems and their branches, the larger 
heads massive but feathery, thrice-branched, the principal head, 
the branches, and branchlets all having a pyramidal outline 
with the apex lengthened out into a tail-like point. The whole 
of this plumy mass is of a rich orange-yellow. The coloured 
part consists exclusively of barren bracts, small and pointed, 
thickly set upon and spirally convolute around the branched 
axes of the inflorescence. On the lower part of the branches 
a few perfect seed-bearing but altogether inconspicuous flowers, 
having a perianth of five lanceolate acuminate membranaceous 
colourless segments, are produced. 
Plate 47. —Celosia (cristata) atjrea: annual; leaves elliptic-lanceolate, 
acuminate, wavy ; inflorescence golden-yellow, compoundly branched, pyra¬ 
midal ; the branches and branchlets pyramidal and caudate, not cock’s-combed 
sterile bracts small pointed and spirally convolute around the axis. 
