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X VITT. Specific Characters of the Decandrous Papilionaceous Plants 

 of New Holland. By James Edward Smith, M.I). F.R.S. P.L.S. 



Head February 16, 1808. 



In the first volume of Dr. Sims and Mr. Konig's Annals of Bo- 

 tany, p. 501, I attempted a discrimination of the genera of this 

 intricate tribe, merely enumerating the species of each genus 

 that were already described by authors, and giving specific cha- 

 racters of new ones only. It has been suggested that the uni- 

 formity of my plan required characters of all the species, those 

 already extant being mostly useless, in consequence of the pre- 

 viously unfixed state of the genera ; for Linnaeus well observes 

 that a specific name or character without an established generic 

 one, is " like a clapper without a bell." I the more readily un- 

 dertake to supply the above-mentioned deficiency, because the 

 liberality of my much-valued friend Mr. Menzies has enabled 

 me to enrich my catalogue of species with several new ones. I 

 regret that from the discontinuance of the very useful work in 

 which my first essay on this subject appeared, the sequel must 

 be destined to a different publication ; still this can be but of 

 small moment to those few botanists who may be expected to 

 look deeply into the matter, and who, most assuredly, will be 

 furnished with both. I think it best here to repeat the essential 

 characters of each genus, more especially as some of them may 

 receive improvement or correction in consequence of subsequent 



observa- 



