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though very unequally, spread over their different regions : they have been ob- 

 served also in the larger islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia ; but 

 hitherto neither in any of the lesser ones, nor in Madagascar. As in America 

 they have been found in Terra del Fuego, in Chile, Peru, and even Guiana, it 

 is reasonable to conclude that the intermediate regions are not entirely destitute 

 of them. But with respect to this continent, it may be observed, that the num- 

 ber of species seems to be comparatively small ; their organization but little 

 varied ; and further, that they have a much greater affinity with those of New 

 Holland than of Africa. Of the botany of South Africa scarce any thing is 

 known, except that of the Cape of Good Hope, where this family occurs in the 

 greatest abundance and variety ; but even from the single fact of a genuine 

 species of Protea having been found in Abyssinia by Bruce, it may be pre- 

 sumed that in some degree they are also spread over this continent. With the 

 shores, at least, of New Holland, under which I include Van Diemen's Island, 

 we are now somewhat better acquainted ; and in every known part of these, 

 Proteaceae have been met with. But it appears, that both in Africa and New 

 Holland the great mass of the order exists about the latitude of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, in which parallel it forms a striking feature in the vegetation of both 

 continents. What I am about to advance respecting the probable distribution 

 of this family in New Holland must be very cautiously received, as it is in fact 

 chiefly deduced from the remarks I have myself made in Captain Flinders' 

 Voyage, and subsequently during my short stay in the settlements of New 

 South Wales and Van Diemen's Island, aided by what was long ago ascertained 

 by Sir Joseph Banks, and by a transitory inspection of an herbarium collected 

 on the west coast, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Shark's Bay, by the bota- 

 nists attached to the expedition of Captain Baudin. From knowledge so 

 acquired, I am inclined to hazard the following observations : The mass of the • 

 order, though extending through the whole of the parallel already mentioned, 

 is by no means equal in every part of it ; but on the southwest coast forms a 

 more decided feature in the vegetation of the country, and contains a far greater 

 number of species, than on the east ; and in that part of the south coast which 

 was first examined by Captain Flinders, it seems to be more scanty than at 

 either of the extremes. On the west coast also, the species, upon the whole, 

 are more similar to those of Africa than on the east, where they bear a some- 

 what greater resemblance to the American portion of the order. From the 

 parallel of the map, the order diminishes in both directions ; but the diminution 

 towards the north is probably more rapid on the east than on the west coast. 

 Within the tropic, on the east coast, no genera have hitherto been observed, 

 which are not also found beyond it ; unless that section of Grevillea, which I 

 have called Cycloptera, be considered as a genus : whereas, at the southern 

 limit of the order several genera make their appearance, which do not occur in 

 its chief parallel. The most numerous genera are also the most widely diffused. 

 Thus Grevillea, Hakea, Banksia, and Persoonia, extensive in species in the 

 order in which they are here mentioned, are spread nearly in the same propor- 

 tion ; and they are likewise the only genera that have as yet been observed 

 within the tropic. Of such of the remaining genera as consist of several 

 species, some, as Isopogon, Petrophila, Conospermum, and Lambertia, are found 

 in every part of the principal parallel, but hardly exist beyond it. Others, as 

 Josephea and Synaphea, equally limited to this parallel, have been observed 

 only towards its western extremity ; while Embothrium (comprehending, for 

 the present, under this name all the many-seeded plants of the order), which is 

 chiefly found on the east coast, and makes very little progress towards the 

 west, advances to the utmost limit of south latitude, and there ascends to the 

 summits of the highest mountains. Genera consisting of one or very few 

 species, and which exhibit generally the most remarkable deviations from the 



