1 18 Dr. Smith's Sketch of the Genus Concilium. 



Thus the many new kinds of Proteacece, though by the judgment 

 of Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. SoJander readily separated from 

 Protea itself, were not rashly subdivided into too many genera, 

 till time, and an opportunity of observing them in different 

 states, should throw sufficient light upon the subject. Some of 

 them indeed, constituting a clear and certain genus, were made 

 known to the younger Linnaeus by means of plates, and dried 

 specimens, and named by him Banksia ; but a number of doubt- 

 ful species have remained unsettled under the temporary deno- 

 mination of false Banksice in the collections of those who had 

 opportunities of acquiring New Holland specimens. 



When the very imperfect materials, from which the botanical 

 part of Dr. White's Voyage to New South Wales was composed, 

 were put into my hands, I had not sufficient information to se- 

 parate these false Banksice from the true ones. I therefore follow- 

 ed Goertner in keeping them together, avoiding a precise defini- 

 tion of the generic character till I had seen the flowers. Mr. 

 Salisbury has done^ the same in the Prodromus of his garden,' 

 where is a more ample enumeration of species than had°before 

 appeared, but their characters are not so satisfactory as some 

 of this writer's. 



In Professor Willdenow's Species Plantarum eight species of 

 f Banksice are enumerated, which comprehend, besides the real 

 Banksice, two other very distinct genera, Xylomelum and Con- 

 cilium, whose characters are given in the 4th volume of the Lin- 

 nean Society's Transactions, p. 214, 215, and of the latter of 

 which 1 shall now offer a further illustration. 



The name, derived from *^ a bivalve shell, was given in 

 allusion to the peculiar form of the fruit, to which it strikingly 

 applies. I was not then aware that, a little before my paper 

 was even read to the Society, this genus had been determined 



at 



