Mr. Brown, on the Proteacea of Jussieu. 27 



doubted importance in determining genera, and even in the pri- 

 mary division of tlie order it appears to be of nearly equal con- 

 sequence with the fruit itself; for, in dividing the order into two 

 sections from the structure of the ovarium, it will be found that 

 while all the single-seeded genera have each flower subtended by 

 a proper bractea, or more rarely are without one, those with two 

 or more seeds have, with very few exceptions, the flowers of their 

 spikes or clusters disposed in pairs, each pair being furnished 

 with only one bractea common to both flowers : it may also be 

 observed that all the American and two thirds of the New 

 Holland species have this mode of inflorescence, while only one 

 instance of it occurs in Africa. 



The single envelope of the stamina and pistillum in Proteaceaj 

 I have, with Jussieu, denominated calyx, chiefly because the 

 stamina, of equal number with its laciniae, are constantly op- 

 posite to them, and from the close analogy subsisting between 

 this family and that of Thymeleae, in which I believe the 

 greater number of botanists will allow that this envelope is really 

 calyx : and as this latter argument may be considered as the 

 stronger, I shall endeavour to establish the identity of this or- 

 gan in these two families. In several of the Thymelece, especially 

 in Pimelea, the lower part of the tube of the cal^'x is, as it were, 

 jointed with the upper ; after the falling oflf of which, it remains 

 surrounding the fruit : this is also the case in several eenera of 

 Proteaccae, as in Adenanthos of Labillardiere, in Isopogon, in Gre~ 

 villea Chrysodendron, and still more remarkably in Frankla7idia, 

 in which the persistent tube becomes indurated and even nearly 

 woody, a change surely not likely to take place in a genuine 

 corolla. But though 1 have thus adopted the language of Jussieu, 

 I am decidedly of opinion that, in all families having a single en- 



E 2 velope. 



