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XXIII. Characters of Platylobium, Bossiati, and of a new Genus 





named Poiretia. By James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S. 



Read May 3, 1808. 



Having lately had my attention recalled to the Papilionaceous 

 plants of New Holland with 10 separate stamens, the result of 

 which I have had the honour of laying before the Linnean So- 

 ciety, I have been induced to reconsider some of the same great 

 natural order, from that country, with united or diadelphous 

 filaments, particularly my own genus Platylobium, and one which 

 has been improperly confounded with it, the Bossitsa of M. Ven- 

 tenat. I have been the more immediately urged to take, up the 

 subject, because this very eminent French botanist, misled by 

 the accounts of others, has supposed these genera to be one and 

 the same, and has, in a letter to me, apologized, with his usual 

 candour, for establishing a new genus apparently in competition 

 with my Platylobium, for want, as he is pleased to say, of his 

 having sufficient information on the subject. I was happy to 

 take the first opportunity which the state of public affairs would 

 allow me, of removing his doubts, and, as far as my judgment 

 would go, of confirming the genus he had founded. The fol- 

 lowing essential characters will, I trust, keep the 2 genera in 

 question, as well as a new one that 1 have to propose, per- 

 fectly distinct, and I shall -subjoin definitions of every species 

 of each with which I am acquainted. They are all brought 

 from the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, New South Wales, 



and 



