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XX. On Jansonia, a new Genus of Leguminose, from Western Australia. 
" By Mr. Ricnanp Kippist, Libr. L.S. &c. &c. 
Read May 4th, 1847. 
HAVING recently been engaged in the examination of an interesting col- 
lection of plants formed by the late Mr. Gilbert in Western Australia, and 
kindly forwarded to me by Mr. Saunders for determination, and the selection 
of a set for the Society's herbarium, I have had the satisfaction of finding 
among them one which, as it appears to me, cannot with propriety be referred 
to any existing genus; and I venture to hope that a short account of it may 
not be thought wholly unworthy the attention of the Linnean Society, whose 
Transactions have so greatly contributed towards elucidating the Australian 
Flora, of all others perhaps the most interesting from the number of singular 
: and anomalous forms which it includes. | 
The plant which I now propose to describe belongs to the Papilionaceous 
subdivision of Leguminose, and is remarkable for its deviation from the pre- 
vailing structure of the floral envelopes in that order, more especially of the 
petals, the proportions which these commonly bear to each other being here 
exactly reversed ; the vexillum, for example, which in a Papilionaceous flower 
of the more usual type exceeds both keel and wings in size, is here so exceed- 
ingly minute, as, in a cursory glance, almost to escape observation ; while the 
keel, usually shorter than the wings, here far exceeds them in length. The 
ordinary proportions of the calyx are in like manner reversed ; the upper lip, 
generally the largest where any difference of size exists, being scarcely one- 
fourth as long as the lower, whose intermediate segment extends beyond the 
lateral ones, while the upper lip is cleft nearly to the base, still further in- 
creasing the apparent obliquity. The stamens likewise participate in this 
irregularity, the anterior filaments being considerably longer than the poste- 
VOL. XX. 3 E 
