Mi-. Buov/N, on the Proteaceee of Jussieii. 35 



Banksia ductijloides (the Concilium dactyldides of Dr. Smith), 

 and wliich lias equiilij escaped Cavanilles and Labillardiere in 

 their characters of Ilalcea. Dr. Smith lias more cautiously 

 omitted this consideration in his character of that genws, and 

 Professor Schrader has accurately described the suture as only 

 existing on one side : such fruits then are as truly folliculi as 

 those of Grevillea, Rhopala, or Embothnum ; and that the ex- 

 istence of a distinct placenta is by no means necessary to con- 

 stitute this kind of fruit, is proved even by some genera of Apo- 

 cineee, to which family this term was first applied. 



A circumstance occurs in some species of Persoonia to which 

 I have met with nothing similar in any other plant: the ovarium 

 in this genus, whether it contain one or two ovula, has never 

 more than one cell ; but in several of the two-seeded species a 

 cellular substance is after foecundation inlerjiosed between the 

 ovula; and this gradually indurating acquires in the ripe fruit 

 the same consistence as the putamen itself, from whose sub- 

 stance it cannot be distinguished ; and thus a fruit originally of 

 one cell becomes bilocular : the cells however are not parallel, as 

 in all those cases where they exist in the unimpregnated ovarium, 

 but diverge more or less upwards. 



In all the seeds of this order there is a very manifest chalaza, 

 which, whatever may be the point of insertion of the seed, is 

 always situated at its upper extremity; and I have not been 

 able to observe any fasciculus of vessels connecting it with the 

 umbilicus in cases where this latter is placed in a different part 

 of the seed. 



I am not aware of any function being ascribed to the cha- 

 laza of seeds, except the nutrition of their proper membrane: 

 but it appears to me too remarkable a part to be destined for 

 this purpose only ; and some observations 1 have made induce 



F 2 me 



