6o PHOCEEDINQS OF THE 



latitude and temperature in the tropical and temperate regions 

 and in the whole world is here first introduced into the study of 

 IJotany. This mode of treatment of the vegetation of the globe 

 occurred simultaneously to Humboldt, who introduced it into 

 his celebrated 'Prolegomena,' published in 1815 (a year after 

 that of the Appendix to Flinders's Voyage), under the title of 

 "Arithmetical botanices," where the investigation is extended 

 to the natural orders. In the Appendix to Tuckey's Congo 

 Expedition, Brown again discusses this subject and alludes to 

 Humboldt's work ; and he also treats of it in the Appendix to 

 Parry's Voyage (1823), where the data are supplied by an Arctic 

 flora. 



Other noteworthy matters in the Appendix to Flinders's Voyage 

 relate to the importance of embryonic characters and of aestiva- 

 tion ; to the inflorescence of Eiijjiwrlia, and the proofs of the 

 real nature of its staminal pedicel ; on the inflorescence of Gra- 

 minece, and the resolution of the Order into the two primary 

 divisions of PanicecB and Ponceae (first indicated in the ' Pro- 

 dromus'); on the corolla audits nervation in Composifce (dis- 

 cussed at length in his paper on that Order, read in 1817) ; on the 

 anomalous placentation of SantalacecB; on the organs of reproduc- 

 tion and mode of impregnation in Sti/lidietE and Goodenoviece ; and 

 on the structure of the female flowers of Coniferce, and especially 

 of Podocarprts and Dacrijdium. The systematic part which follows 

 the more general dissertation may be supposed to consist of the 

 observations and descriptions of some of the new genera and 

 orders, that were prepared for the unpublished volume of the 

 ' Prodromus.' 



In 1816 Brown communicated to this Society an account of 

 the remarkable deviations from the usual structure of fruits and 

 seeds occurring in Leontice, Peliosanthes, Sfercuh'acece, Reseda, 

 HMzophora, Amaryllidece, and Aroidecs, w^hich had been either 

 overlooked or misinterpreted by previous authors. 



In the following year his observations upon Gompositoi were 

 read before this Society. As in the Appendix to Flinders's 

 Voyage, this memoir contains a wealth of miscellaneous matter, 

 more or less germane to the subject in hand. Brown commences 

 with a discussion on the aestivation and nervation of the corolla, 

 the true nature of which he had, as above indicated, already dis- 

 covered and announced, and proceeds to comment on the inflores- 

 cence, and that o^ Dipsacea: and Granmiece ; and then treats of the 

 stamens, disk, style, ovary, and its " chordae pistillares." Amongst 

 the observations and general conclusions introduced or indicated 

 are those on the order in which the reduction of stamina takes 

 place in families with definite stamens (alluded to under Juncece in 

 the Appendix to Flinders's Voyage) ; on the relations betw^een pre- 

 cocity and perfection or imperfection of development in aggregated 

 inflorescences; on the position of the female flower in unisexual 

 plants : on the grounds for assuming the superior perfection of 



