This really handsome
amaranthaceous plant has been raised from Swan
river seeds by Mr. W. Thompson, of Ipswich, and
from specimens grown by that gentleman our figure
has been derived. Very little is as yet known of
its habits, but it is amongst half-hardy annuals
that it will probably find its place in our
gardens, even though it be naturally, as some
other of our Australian so-called annuals are, of
more extended duration.
The plant forms at first a tuft
of radical leaves, which are long-stalked and
oblong-spathulate in form, smooth, and of a deep
green colour. From among these arise the
flowering stems, to the height of 1 and 1/2 foot;
they are furnished sparingly below with
lance-shaped leaves, become slightly branched,
and each branch terminates in a crowded
oblong-oval spike, which consists of scarious
rosy-coloured bracts, from amongst which issue
the rosy purple flowers, these protruding
considerably beyond the bracts. Both bracts and
flowers are clothed with long conspicuous hairs.
"Few more lovely plants,:
observes Sir W. Hooker, "have been
introduced to our gardens than this, which is one
of the most striking of some fifty species know
to botanists; "and this encomium we think
our figure will be found to justify.
Mr. Thomson, who fortunately got
a few of his imported seeds to vegetate,
describes the root as being apparently perennial,
throwing up several branched stems, each branch
bearing one of the handsome heads of flowers. The
copious white hairs, so characteristic of the
genus, with which the forets and bracts are
clothed, give, he remarks, a singular aspect to
the plant, and contrast effectively with the
Amaranth-purple petals. Under the lens these
hairs are pretty objects; owing to thier
denticulations the germination of the seed,
moreover, revealed a peculiarity worthy of note.
The plumule, instead of rising from between the
two unequal seed-leaves as in most plants, was
found to be emitted from a point considerably
below them. The same thing occurs, he adds, in
Dodecatheon meadia.
Trichinium Manglesii was first
described by Dr. Lindley some twenty years since
in the "Botanical Register," where it
is spoken of as a most beautiful plant, with the
heads of flowers 3 inches across. It has not till
now, however, found its way into our gardens.
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