The botanist's repository for new and rare plants; vol. 05 [of 10] — A Reader’s Guide

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Authors: Andrews, Henry Cranke, active 1799-1828 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2024 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Plants -- Pictorial works; Plants, Cultivated -- Pictorial works; Rare plants -- Pictorial works Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 29,406

Reading time 128 min

Text sections 7

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #73359

This fifth volume of Andrews's botanical series presents 48 hand-colored plates of new and rare plants, each with facing Latin and English descriptions following the Linnaean system. The entries document precise cultivation histories, including dates of introduction and first flowering in British collections, with detailed anatomical dissections of floral parts.

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_Heart-shape-leaved Protea._

_TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Four Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

COROLLA 4-fida, seu 4-petala. Antheræ lineares, insertæ petalis infra apicem. Calyx, proprius, nullus. Semina solitaria.

BLOSSOM four-cleft or four petals. Tips linear, inserted into the petals below the ends. Cup, proper, none. Seeds solitary.

See PROTEA FORMOSA, Pl. XVII. Vol. I.

Protea foliis cordatis.

Protea with heart-shaped leaves.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A Floret before the petals have separated, natural size. 2. The same, magnified, after the bursting of the petals. 3. The Pointal and Seed-bud, natural size.

The Heart-shape-leaved Protea was introduced to Britain in the year 1792, from the Cape of Good Hope, by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy; at whose nursery it is now, this present month of March, 1803, in flower for the first time in this country. The plant is only found on the mountains of that part of the Cape called Hottentots Holland; the stem, in its native state, laying on the ground, seldom more than a foot in length, and the flowers proceeding from it near its base. It is rather delicate, should be kept in a very airy part of the green-house, and planted in a light loamy soil. It is propagated by cuttings, made in the month of April, and kept under a common hand-glass, the pot being plunged in a shady border.

Of this Protea there is a good figure in Thunberg’s _Dissertatio de Protea_, Upsal, quarto edition, 1781, Plate 5, fig. 1.

APONOGETON DISTACHYON.

_Broad-leaved Aponogeton._

_DODECANDRIA TETRAGYNIA._ Twelve Chives. Four Pointals.

CALYX nullus, nisi squama spathacea externum latus floris cingens, simplex, sessilis, ovata, obtusa, integra, erecta, glabra, colorata.

STAMINA. Filamenta undecim ad novemdecim, superioribus floribus pauciora, intra spatham et capsulas inserta, subulata, glabra, alba, spatha multoties breviora. Antheræ erectæ, bifidæ.

PISTILLA. Germina plerumque quatuor, raro tria seu quinque. Styli nulli. Stigmata subulata, incurvata.

PERICARPIUM. Capsulæ quatuor, rarius tres seu quinque, ovatæ, subulato-acutæ, exteriore latere gibbæ, interiore planæ, glabræ, unilocularis.

SEMINA, in quacumque capsula tria, basi capsula affixa, sessilia, obovata, obtusissima, sub-compressa, glabra.

EMPALEMENT none, except a sheathing scale surrounding the outer side of the flower, simple, sitting close, egg-shaped, obtuse, intire, upright, smooth, coloured.

CHIVES. Threads eleven to nineteen, in the upper flowers fewer, inserted between the spathe and the capsules, awl-shaped, smooth, white, much shorter than the spathe. Tips upright, two-cleft.

POINTALS. Seed-buds often four, seldom three or five. Shafts none. Summits awl-shaped, turned inwards.

SEED-VESSEL. Capsules four, seldom three or five, egg-shaped, pointed, awl-shaped, unequally swelled on the outside, flat on the inner, smoothed, one-celled.

SEEDS in each capsule three, fixed to the base of it, sitting close, inversely egg-shaped, very blunt, rather flattish, smooth.

Aponogeton spica bifida; foliis eliptico-lanceolatis, natantibus; bracteis integris; floribus polyandris.

Aponogeton with a two-branched spike; leaves eliptically lance-shaped, floating; floral leaves entire; flowers with many chives.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A Floret, with its floral leaf, magnified.

2. The Seed-buds and Summits, magnified.

This Genus of Plants in the Catalogue of the Kew Garden, is placed to the Class Heptandria, and perhaps, with as much propriety as where it now stands in Thunberg, Schreber, &c. for the number of chives in almost every floret differs in this, and all the other species, from six to twenty. It is there said to have been introduced to us in 1788 from the Cape of Good Hope by Mr. F. Masson. It is found near Cape Town in most of the brooks; is very sweet scented, and flowers from April till November. As an aquatic it is very desirable for those who cultivate those plants, the fragrance of the flowers being nearly equal to our Nymphæa alba, or White Water Lily; and this, added to the contrasted effect of the deep brown antheræ upon the pure white floral leaves, which indeed have the appearance of blossoms, give the whole an indescribable trait of beauty, peculiar to itself. Our figure was taken from a plant in the Hibbertian collection.

SENECIO PSEUDO-CHINA.

_China-root Groundsel._

_SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA._ Tips united. Superfluous Pointals.

CALYX. Communis calyculatus, conicus, truncatus; squamis subulatis, plurimis, in cylindrum superne contractum, parallelis, contiguis, æqualibus, paucioribus basin imbricatim tegentibus, apicibus emortuis.

COROLLA. Composita, calyce altior; Corullulæ hermaphroditæ tubulosæ, numerosæ in disco; Femineæ ligulatæ in radio (si quæ adsint).

_Propria_ hermaphroditi infundibuliformis; limbo reflexo, quinquefido.

_Femineis_ (si quæ) oblonga, obsolete tridentata.

STAMINA. Hermaphroditis; filamenta quinque, capillaria, minima. Anthera cylindracea, tubulosa.

PISTILLUM utrisque; germen ovatum. Stylus filiformis, longitudine staminum. Stigmata duo, oblonga, revoluta.

PERICARPIUM nullum. Calyx conico-connivens.

SEMINA hermaphroditis solitaria, ovata. Pappus crinitus, longus. Femineis similima hermaphroditis.

RECEPTACULUM nudum, planum.

EMPALEMENT. Common, double, conical, appearing cut off; scales awl-shaped, numerous, contracted above into a cylinder, parallel, contiguous, equal, the base tiled by a few scales, dead at the ends.

BLOSSOM. Compound, taller than the cup; Hermaphrodite florets tubular, numerous in the disk; Female florets (if there are any) tongue-shaped in the circumference.

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Each plate in this volume pairs a hand-colored engraving with a facing page that names the plant in Latin and English, assigns it a Linnaean class and order, and gives the essential generic and specific characters in parallel columns. The descriptions are terse and technical: the Protea cordata entry, for instance, notes that its stem “laying on the ground, seldom more than a foot in length” in its native habitat, while the Struthiola ovata account specifies that its honey-cup has “twelve divisions.”

What makes these entries distinctive is the appended cultivation history. Andrews records where and when each plant was first grown in Britain—often naming the nursery or private collection—and the exact month of its first flowering. The Gladiolus pyramidatus, for example, is said to have bloomed “in August, this year, 1803” at the collection of the Dowager Lady De Clifford. These details anchor the botanical descriptions in a specific network of early nineteenth-century horticultural practice.

Anatomical Dissections and Magnified Details

Every plate is accompanied by a set of numbered figures that dissect the flower into its reproductive parts. The reference key lists each figure by name—such as “A Floret before the petals have separated, natural size” and “The same, magnified, after the bursting of the petals” for the Protea cordata. These diagrams isolate the chives, pointal, seed-bud, and often the empalement or honey-cup, drawn at a larger scale to show structures invisible to the naked eye.

The Struthiola ovata entry includes four magnified figures: the two leaves of the empalement, a complete flower, a blossom cut open to reveal the chives, and a seed-bud with shaft and summit. This systematic approach—showing the same organ at natural size and then magnified—allows the reader to connect the macroscopic appearance of the plant with its microscopic anatomy. The figures are not decorative; they serve as a visual key to the generic and specific characters stated in the text.

Cultivation Histories and Provenance

Andrews consistently records the source of each plant and its performance in British gardens. The Protea cordata “was introduced to Britain in the year 1792, from the Cape of Good Hope, by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy” and flowered “for the first time in this country” in March 1803. The Struthiola ovata came from the Cape via Mr. Niven in 1799 and bloomed in August 1802 at the Clapham Collection—the only collection where it was then seen.

These provenance notes are not merely factual; they reveal the network of collectors, nurserymen, and private gardeners who supplied Andrews with specimens. The Gladiolus pyramidatus is recorded as growing “to the height of three feet” and flowering “from four to six at a time in succession” at Lady De Clifford’s garden. By naming the individuals and estates, Andrews transforms the volume into a directory of early nineteenth-century botanical patrons and practitioners.

The Linnaean Framework and Bilingual Descriptions

Each entry opens with the plant’s Linnaean class and order—for example, “CLASS IV. ORDER I. TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA” for the Protea cordata—followed by the essential generic character in both Latin and English. The specific character is then given in a compressed Latin phrase, such as “Protea foliis cordatis,” and translated into English. This bilingual format allows the volume to serve both the scholar trained in Linnaean nomenclature and the English-speaking gardener.

The generic character is a formulaic list of floral parts: empalement, blossom, chives, pointals, seed-bud, and seed. For the Aponogeton distachyon, the description runs to several lines of Latin before the English equivalent. The consistency of this structure across all plates means that a reader familiar with one entry can quickly locate the same information in another. The volume thus functions as a reference work organized by a single taxonomic system.

Movement Between Text and Image

The layout of each plate creates a deliberate rhythm between verbal description and visual representation. On the left-hand page (or facing plate) the text names the plant, gives its classification, and lists the anatomical figures. On the right-hand page the colored engraving shows the whole plant in flower, often with a separate detail of a leaf or flower cluster. The reader’s eye moves from the generic character to the specific character, then to the numbered figures, and finally to the full plate.

This movement is reinforced by the reference numbers in the plate key, which correspond to the figures drawn on the plate itself. For the Gladiolus pyramidatus, the key lists “1. Part of a leaf. 2. The two Valves of the Sheath. 3. A Blossom cut open, to shew the insertion of the Chives. 4. The Seed-bud, Shaft and Summits.” The reader must flip between the text and the plate to match each number with its visual counterpart, a process that trains the eye to see the plant as a composite of discrete organs.

The volume rewards a sequential reading: each plate builds on the previous one, and the cumulative effect is a portrait of botanical knowledge in 1803. Pay attention to the dates of first flowering and the names of the collectors—they map the geography of plant introduction from the Cape of Good Hope to English greenhouses. The magnified figures are not afterthoughts; they are the core of Andrews’s method, making visible the structures that define each species.

I remember pressing rose petals into my grandmother’s Bible, each one a silent cipher of a summer afternoon. This volume’s precise dissections remind me of that gentle violence—naming what we love to keep it near. I felt that same delicate taxonomy in The language of flowers — Story, Setting & Ideas, where meanings bloom quietly between the lines.