532 



PROTEACE.E. 



[Perigynous Exogens. 



Order CCIV. PROTEACE^.— Proteads. 



Proteacese, Juss. Gen. (1789); R. Brown in Linn. Trans. 10. 15. (1809); Prodr. 

 (1830); Endl. Gen. cxiii.; Meisner Gen. p. 3-31. 



Suppl. Prim. 



Diagnosis. — Daphnal Exogens, with apetalom flowers, anthers btorsting lengthwise, erect 

 ovules, and a valvate calyx. 



Shrubs or small trees. Branches usually umbellate. Leaves hard, dry, divided or 

 undiAaded, opposite or alternate, \vithout stipules ; theu' cuticle often covered equally 

 on both sides with stomates. Calyx 4-leaved, or 4-cleft, 

 with a valvate aestivation. Stamens 4, sometimes in part 

 sterile, opposite the segments of the calyx. Ovary con- 

 sisting of a single carpel, superior ; style simple ; stigma 

 undivided ; ovule one, or two collateral, or several in 

 two rows, anatropal or amphitropal, and ascending. Fruit 

 dehiscent or inhehiscent. Seed without albumen ; em- 

 bryo with two or occasionally several cotyledons, straight; 

 radicle mferior, next the hilum, or parallel with it. 



There is no difficulty in distinguishing tliis Order ; 

 the hard woody texture of the leaves, the irregular 

 tubular calyxes with a valvate aestivation, the stamens 

 placed upon the lobes, along \vith a dehiscent fruit, at 

 once characterise it. By these marks it is known from 

 Daphnads and all other Orders. According to Bro\\Ti, 

 the radicle pointing towards the base of the fruit in all 

 Proteads, is [a circumstance of the greatest importance 

 in distinguishing the Order from those most nearly related 

 to it ; and its constancy is more remarkable, as it is 

 not accompanied by the usual position or even unifor- 

 mity in the situation of the external umbilicus. — Linn. 

 Trans. 10. 36. He has also I'emarked, ^^'ith his usual 

 acuteness, that in consequence 

 of the presence of hypogynous 

 scales, we may expect to find 

 octandrous genera belonging to 

 this family. The same ^vriter 

 observes, that there is a pecu- 

 liax'ity m the structure of the 

 stamens of certain genera of 

 Proteads, namely, Simsia, Cono- 

 spermum, and S^aiaphea, in all of 



Fig. CCCLXIII. 



hich these organs are connected in such a manner 

 that the cohermg lobes of two different anthers form only one cell. Another anomaly 

 equally remarkable exists in Synaphea, the di\dsions of whose barren filament so ulti- 

 mately cohere \\ith the stigma, as to be absolutely lost in its substance, while the style 

 and undivided part of the filament remain perfectly distinct. In another place he 

 remarks : " A circumstance occurs in some species of Persoonia, to which I have met 

 ^^ith nothing similar in any other plant : the ovarium m this genus, whether it contam 

 one or two o^Tila, has never more than one cell ; but in several of the 2-seeded species, 

 a cellular substance is, after fecundation, interposed between the o\Tila, and tliis gra- 

 dually indui-ating, acquii'es m the ripe fruit the same consistence as the putamen itself, 

 from whose substance it camiot be distinguished ; and thus, a fruit origmally of one cell 

 becomes bilocular ; the cells, however, are not parallel, as in all those cases where they 

 exist m the unimpregnated ovarium, but diverge more or less upwards." Tliis is sub- 

 sequently explained by the same author {King's Appendix), by the cohesion of the 

 outer membranes of the two collateral o\Tiles, origmally distmct, but finally constituting 

 this anomalous dissepiment, the inner membrane of the o^mle consequently foraimg the 

 outer coat of the seed. - ' 



A happier name than that of Proteads could not have been de\ased, for the diversity 

 of appearance presented by the various genera is such as it would be hard to parallel in 



Fig. CCCLXIII.— Sjmaphea dilatata.- 

 and style and stigma. 



-Ferd. Bauer. 1. a flower: 2. one of its lobes ; 3. the ovary 



