alias Cestrinus carthamoides, Ccussini.) A fragrant tap-rooted perennial; native of Barbary, 
araceous 
1799; now lost (Kg. 40.) 
Gardener 
m The air was filled with the aroma of a multitude of Toffs, which the Bedouin children had gathered for us. I know no 
European flower which I could put in comparison, as regards odour, with this seemingly insignificant Thistle ; and here 
in Tunis, where kind Nature seems to have created it in such abundance, in order to overpower the pestiferous 
exhalations of the town, I have become too fond of it not to say a few words about it. One or two days after our arrival 
in Tunis, F— brought me a very ugly flower, a sort of vegetable polypus, as it were, which had neither leaves nor stalk, 
nor, as I supposed, smell. For want of a stalk it was stuck on the end of a small twig. Almost offended at the 
imputation against my taste, implied by F — 's offering me so ugly a thing, I paid no attention to his present, but let it lie 
on the chimney-piece. Often, however, as I passed the spot I perceived a delicious odour, and in vain inquired where were 
the concealed beds of Violets or Mignonette from which it proceeded. Neither F — nor T — could give me any 
informal 
perfume 
amazement at the phenomenon. It was my despised Thistle which diffused its incomparable fragrance over the whole 
room. I found it limp and faded lying under a heap of newspapers ; I took it up, and pulled out the pointed 
twig that had been thrust into its tender heart, entreated its forgiveness for having so mistaken its worth, laid it 
into a saucer of water, and behold, it did forgive me ; for its shrivelled florets expanded themselves again, and sent 
forth their fragrance more abundantly than ever. It is now the season when they are in bloom, and they stretch their 
heads by hundreds out of the earth ; for they grow so close to the ground that one must actually dig them out, to get the 
flower entire. The exquisite perfume of this Thistle is universally acknowledged, for many fragrant essences are 
prepared from it." This is evidently the plant described by Desfontaines, under the name of Cynara acaulis, and we 
figur 
He says that it is called Tafga, that its 
heads are yellow, that its flowers smell like the Farnese Acacia, the sweetest of Italian plants, that its root is eatable 
and that the Moors employ the plant to keep moths off their clothes (ad vermes vestimentis fugandos). 
96. Calliaxdra brevipes. Bentham. 
shrub 
Belongs to the 
eguminous Order. 
rs of pink mimosa- 
Sent to Kew by 
like flowers, appearing in October. 
M. Van Houtte. 
A branching shrub, 4 to 5 feet high. Leaves double, each portion oblong, very closely pinnated with small linear- 
oblong, acute leaflets, and these generally drooping. Heads of flowers on short peduncles from the axils of the leaves, 
few in each head. Corolla, yellow, four-cleft Stamens six times as long as the corolla, very slender, pale red or rose- 
colour. A pretty shrub which grows luxuriantly in the warm stove, if potted in light loam mixed with leaf mould. 
Being a dry, fibrous-rooted plant, it requires to be freely supplied with water. With a little attention to tying up and 
pruning, it may be made a compact, handsome bush. When in flower it is highly ornamental, its bright red tufts 
contrasting strongly with the delicate green foliage. It is readily increased by cuttings, which should be planted under 
a bell-glass and placed in bottom heat- " 
97. Galphimia GLAUCA. 
-Botanical Magazine, t. 4500. 
Cavanilles. A Mexican hothouse Malpighiad, with handsome 
glaucous foliage, and an abundance of gay yellow blossoms. Introduced by the Horticultural 
Society. Flowers in the autumn and early winter. 
form 
• a i w ^ a busn - ^he feaves are a deep bluish green, ovate, obtuse, glaucous on 
the underside, and furnished with a pair of glands on the edge near the base. The flowers, which are golden yellow, 
terminal raceme hptwp*n a «„d 4 inches long in gtrong pJantg Each hag five distinct pe tals, with almost 
a mixture of loam and sandv neat, and is easily increased by cuttings of 
form 
the half-ripened young shoots, 
season, to be freely supplied w 
With a figure. 
98. Ternstro^iia sylv 
requires 
osphere 
Chamisso and Schlec h tendahL 
Mexican 
Natural 
shrub, of no beauty, with greenish sweet-scented blossoms, , 
Flowered at the Apothecaries' Garden, Chelsea, in February. " 
verf nlrin^K ?2 *£' but ra0re 8 P readin S- Leaves narrow, oblong, bluntly acuminate, deep green on the upper, 
Illi L * _ the UD l er 8lde > P^ectly "loath. The flowers grow singly on short curved stalks, and are quite hidden 
ire of thf* r\*\t> #i„n ~* *i i ,. ™ ,. - . 1 -. i_^-i».A~ ^e kaoi^v When 
among the leaves. They 
agreeable 
Journ. JTorft Soc. 9 Vol, v. p. 141. 
