34 Ml'. Brown, on the Proteaceet of Jussieu, 



alone, when occurring in several species, would have determined 

 me to separate these plants from Conospermmn : but being also ac- 

 companied by other remarkable difterences, both of structure 

 and appearance, no genus, I apprehend, can be better founded 

 than this. 



That the opinion of Christian Knaut and Vaillant respecting 

 the non-existence of naked seeds is correct when anatomically 

 considered, there can be no doubt ; but the practical utility of 

 deviating in this subject from the common language of botanists 

 may still be questioned : and accordingly Gaertner, who was 

 fully aware of the truth of their position, has nevertheless con- 

 tinued to describe the seeds of many plants as naked. I con- 

 fess however I am inclined to adopt the opposite decision of the 

 French botanists, at the head of whom is Richard, who has also 

 proposed terms for distinguishing the various species hitherto 

 confounded under the name of naked seeds. The fruit of the 

 monospermous genera of Proteacese might probably be with 

 advantage referred to that which he has termed Ahena ; but as 

 I am unwilling in the present paper to adopt any term not more 

 generally sanctioned and understood than this, I shall content 

 myself with calling those niices, which are either not at all or but 

 slightly compressed and not bordered ; and apply the term 

 samara to such as are either very much compressed, or with a 

 less remarkable compression are surrounded or terminated by a 

 membranaceous border: that I regard these distinctions how- 

 ever as in some cases of very little importance, may be inferred 

 from this, that my genus Leucadendroii includes both these kinds 

 of fruit. 



The first observation I have to offer on the fruits of Pro- 

 teaceae is, that there is no really bivalvular capsule in the order ; 

 a truth which was not perceived by Gaertner in describing his 



Banksia 



