A specimen of the botany of New Holland/Embothrium buxifolium

123673A specimen of the botany of New Holland — Embothrium buxifoliumJames Edward Smith



EMBOTHRIUM buxifolium.

Box-leaved Embothrium.


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Spec. Char. E. foliis ellipticis integerrimis revolutis supra scabris subtus pubescentibus, floris umbelatis, fructu villoso.

Leaves elliptical, entire, revolute, rough above, downy beneath. Flowers in umbels. Fruit downy.





THIS, like the preceding species, is hitherto a stranger to our gardens. In its native country it flowers about November.

Root knobbed and woody. Stem much branched, three or four feet high; the branches round, clothed with harsh down, and thickly covered with very numerous alternate solitary leaves, about the size of those of box, almost sessile, elliptical, with a little sharp point, entire, revolute, but destitute of the lateral nerves observable in E. sericeum, veiny, dark green, very rough above, with minute prominent tubercles, downy beneath. Stipulæ none. Flowers numerous, in solitary terminal erect umbels, without involucra. Flower-stalks simple, round, thickly clothed with reddish brown hairs. Corolla clothed externally with the same coloured hairiness as the flower-stalks, and internally with white; its four segments cohere together, so that their four cells form one common cavity, destitute of hair, and of a brown colour, in which stand, in the form of a star, the four yellowish antheræ, each of two cells. Germen oval, with a gland at its base, very hairy, as is the style; stigma lateral, a little below the pointed apex of the style, prominent, blackish, not hairy, rugged. Follicle ovate, gibbous, black, covered with white hair. Seeds two, each attached by a very short wing.


EXPLANATION of TAB. X.

1. A Flower separate. 2. The same with the segments of its Corolla forcibly divided. 3. Anthera. 4. Pistillum. 5. Gland at the base of the Germen. 6. Ripe Fruit. 7. A Seed.