Mr. Brown, on the Proteacece of Jussieu. 37 



If Gaertner had not described the plumula of Protea ar-t 

 gentea, I should not have hesitated to assert that it was inconspi- 

 cuous in the whole order. 



The number of COTYLEDONS when more than two is a circum- 

 stance of little importance. In Persoonia, the only genus of the 

 order in which a plurality of cotyledons has been observed, I 

 am not even certain that their number is constant in those 

 species in which this anomaly occurs. 



In the following part of this essay it may be observed, that 

 the genera into which I have subdivided the great African fa- 

 mily Protea, are in most cases similar to those already proposed 

 by Mr. Salisbury in the Paradisus Londinensis : from that 

 essay however they arc certainly not derived, but before its 

 publication were formed and submitted to the judgment of 

 Mr. Dryander, at whose suggestion they are now offered to the 

 Society. That the results of an examination conducted by two 

 observers wholly independent of each other, are so similar, will 

 probably be considered as some proof of their correctness. 



As Mr. Salisbury's generic names have the unquestionable right 

 of priority of publication, I have in most cases adopted them, 

 though I wish some of them had been differently constructed. 

 But as I cannot accede to his application of the Linnsean 

 names Protea and Leucadendron, I shall here, that I may not 

 disturb the following arrangement, assign my reasons for diifering 

 from him in this respect; and as in so doing I am obliged to 

 trace the progress of Linnaeus's knowledge of the family, I per- 

 suade myself that this will in some degree compensate for the 

 otherwise unwarrantable length of the discussion. 



The name Protea, which originated with Linnaeus, first oc- 

 curs in the folio edition of his Systema Naturae published iji 



1735; 



