Hermannia Alnifolia. Alder-Leaved Hermannia.
Pentagyna. _Caps._ 5-locularis. _Petala_ basi semitubulata, obliqua.
HERMANNIA _alnifolia_ foliis cuneiformibus lineatis plicatis crenato-emarginatis. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14._ _Murr. p. 610._ _Ait. Kew. v. 2. p. 412._
ARBUSCULA africana tricapsularis ononidis vernæ singulari folio. _Pluk. Mant. 14. t. 239. f. 1._
_Hermannia_ is a genus of plants named in honour of Dr. Paul Herman, a Dutch Botanist of great celebrity, author of the _Paradisus Batavus_, and other valuable works: twenty-six species are enumerated in the 13th edition of the _Syst. Naturæ_ of Linnæus by Prof. Gmelin, and eight in the _Hortus Kewensis_ of Mr. Aiton; most of those in the latter work are cultivated in the nurseries near town: they form a set of the more hardy greenhouse plants, grow readily, and flower freely; their blossoms are for the most part yellow, and have a considerable affinity with those of the _Mahernia_.
The present species flowers very early in the spring, from February to May, producing a great profusion of bloom during that period; is a native of the Cape, and was cultivated by Mr. Miller, in 1728.
It rarely ripens its seeds with us, but is readily increased by cuttings.
The nurserymen near town regard this plant as the _grossularifolia_ of Linnæus, calling another, equally common species, with longer and narrower leaves, _alnifolia_, and which does not appear to be described by Linnæus or mentioned by Mr. Aiton; our plant accords exactly with the Linnæan description of _alnifolia_, and there is we think no doubt of its being the _alnifolia_ of the _Hortus Kewensis_, and Mr. Miller's _Dictionary_.
_Recept._ nudum. _Pappus_ plumosus vel capillaris. _Cal._ imbricatus, squamis marginalibus rotundatis, scariosis, coloratis.
GNAPHALIUM _eximium_ foliis sessilibus ovatis confertis erectis tomentosis, corymbo sessili. _Linn. Mant. Pl. p. 573._ _Syst. Nat. ed. 13. Gmel._
ELYCHRYSUM africanum foliis lanceolatis integris tomentosis decurrentibus, capitulus congestis ex rubello aureis. _Edw. Av. t. 183._
In the summer of 1794, towards the end of July, the Gnaphalium here figured, the most magnificent and shewy of all the species hitherto introduced to this country, flowered in great perfection at Messrs. Lee and Kennedy's, Hammersmith: Mr. Lee informs me, that he raised it from seeds given him by Capt. William Paterson, author of a Narrative of four journeys into the country of the Hottentots, and Caffraria, and who has most laudably exerted himself in introducing many new and interesting plants to this country; this gentleman assured Mr. Lee, that the plant was found in a wild state, five hundred miles from the Cape, on the borders of the Caffre country, from whence the natives bring bundles of the dried plant to the Cape as presents; in the state the plant has long since been imported from that fertile coast: if we mistake not, a specimen of this sort is figured in Petiver's works, and a coloured representation is given of it in Edwards's History of Birds, taken from a dried plant, brought from the Cape, by Capt. Isaac Worth, in 1749.