Mr. BuowN, on the Troteacea of Jussieit. 31 



landia, and consists in the anthera, or rather that portion of the 

 filament on which it is fixed, adhering to the calyx ihrough its 

 whole length. 



The figure of the pollen has been attended to by a few theo- 

 retical, but by hardly any practical botanists; yet I am inclined 

 to think, not only from its consideration in this family, but in 

 many others, that it may be consulted with advantage in fixing 

 our notions of the limits of genera: and though its minuteness 

 may perhaps always exclude it from a place in generic characters, 

 yet it well deserves, to use the words of Linnteus when speaking 

 of habit, to be " occulte consulendus." 



Its usual figure in the order is triangular with secreting angles, 

 a beautiful contrivance for insuring impregnation in a tribe, in 

 which, from the very scanty, or in many cases apparent want 

 of secretion by the stigma, it must otherwise have been very 

 uncertain; for by this form and secretion, as well as by the sin- 

 gular oeconomy of the calyx, it remains so long in contact with 

 the stigma, as probably to compensate for the somewhat de- 

 fective structure of that organ. 



From this figure the principal deviation is in the extensive 

 genera Banksia and Josephia, in all of which it is elliptical or 

 oblong, and either straight or bent into a semilunar form; 

 and in Franklandia and Aulax, where it is spherical. The only 

 remaining exception with M'hich I am acquainted is the original 

 Embothrium of Forster, his E. coccineum, in which, as in Banksia, 

 it is oblong; a circumstance that, together with the more im- 

 portant character of a regular club-shaped stigma, and some 

 other differences, has determined me to separate it from all the 

 other species of Embothrium, except E. lanceolatum of Flora Peru- 

 viana, whose pollen however remains to be examined. 



The external modifications of the ovarium must be very 



cautiously 



