58 PUOCKEDINGS OF THE 



collector, observer, and systematist, and it foreshadows his 

 most important discoveries — embryological, tuorphological, and 

 structural. It establislied his reputation as the possessor of a 

 greater grasp of scientific botany than any predecessor or 

 contemporary, and it has been called in Germany his " Opus 

 aurt'um." 



1 uou- pass in review his other more important works ; taking 

 them, as a rule, in order of date, except in cases where tlie 

 later researches are the direct outcome of the earlier. 



As already stated, the appearance of his monograph of the 

 Proteacete was communicated to this Society in the year before 

 the publication of the ' Prodromus.' It commences with a 

 tribute to the value of the confessedly artificial system of Liii- 

 njeus, as facilitating a knowledge of species and directing atten- 

 tion to essential characters ; and then proceeds to inculcate the 

 study of floral organs before their expansion, announcing as a 

 proof of their value, his discovery thereby of the origin of the 

 polleti-masses of AsclepiadecB being distinct from that of the 

 glands and processes of the stigma, to which they become subse- 

 quently attached. After a long excursus on Asclepiadece and 

 ApocynccB, the geographical distribution of Proteacece is next 

 discussed, and here, amongst the general observations, are two 

 very important ones — that as aruleoligotypic genera of plants are 

 local, and that they present the greatest deviations from the 

 structure of the Order to which they belong ; and that with regard 

 to social or gregarious species, they are characteristic of tem- 

 perate regions, but that such as do occur in the tropics are 

 littoral or are found only at great elevations. Other suggestive 

 remarks are that the character of pubescence on the ovary or 

 fruit is of no generic value, except when of manifest functional 

 importance, as in assisting dissemination; and that it is hence 

 valueless in the cases of capsulai- and drupaceous genera. The 

 description of the pollen of Proteacece and its adaptation to the 

 peculiarities of the stigma, and of these to the singular oeconomy 

 of the calyx and the symmetry of the flower, will repay a careful 

 study. The conversion of the 1-celled 2-ovuled ovary into tlie 

 2-celled fruit of some species of Persoonia by the intervention of 

 a septum after impregnation is detected, as is their plurality of 

 cotyledons. The function of the chalaza is discussed, the origin 

 and development of the albumen described, and the great im- 

 portance of the character of the position of the radicle in respect 

 of the fruit, and this independently of the situation of the um- 

 bilicus, is insisted upon as distinguishing tlie Order from its allies. 

 A learned discussion on the history and nomenclature of the 

 Order and monograph of its species completes the work. 



The substance of Brown's next contribution to Botany, that on 

 Asclepiadece and its removal from ApocijnecB, is (as stated above) 

 referred to and in part published in his paper on Proteacece. 

 Considerable additious were subsequently made to it, and as the 



