Berzelia
(named in honour of Berzelius, a celebrated Swedish chemist). ORD. Bruniaceae. Very pretty little greenhouse evergreen shrubs. Heads of flowers naked, with three bracts at the base of each; usually crowded at the tops of the branches. Leaves short, some-what trigonal, imbricate or spreading. They require a mixture of peat, loam, and sand, with thorough drainage and moderately firm potting. Young cuttings root freely in sand, under a bell glass, in gentle heat.
B. abrotanoides (Abrotanum-like). fl.-heads white, the size of a filbert, terminal, crowded, sub-corymbose; bracts clavate, green, smooth, ustulate at the apex. May to July. l. ovate, ustulate at the apex, smooth, spreading, on short petioles. h. 1 1/2ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1787. (L. B. C. 355.)
B. lanuginosa (woolly).* fl.-heads white, about the size of a pea, at the tops of lateral branches, disposed in a fastigiate panicle; bracts spathulate, callose at the apex, June to August. l. triquetrous, spreading, callose at the apex, rather hairy. Branches erect, villous when young. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1774. (L. B. C. 572.)