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mostly from New Holland plants ; some of them 

 are not familiar to me, but I can see the justness of 

 the characters you establish. I wish you would also 

 examine the Cape Proteas, because the two Floras 

 are much more alike than it is supposed they are, — 

 not only parallel, but are both fragments of a whole. 

 Styphelias are found at the Cape. Masson has 

 brought two species, and God knows if in the dif- 

 ferent genera of the Protect, family many are not 

 common to both Floras, and to be reciprocally il- 

 lustrated by each other. Will you allow me the 

 liberty of a friendly observation * The general ten- 

 dency of the family is to be tetrapetalotis, notwith- 

 standing the insertion of the stamina in the corolla; 

 so I wish you would try those which appear mono- 

 petalous, before a definitive determination, because 

 many of them may be only slightly connated petals 

 in a tubular appearance, as I will be able to show 

 you in the Lambertia, which is perfectly tetrapetala, 

 and the petals of which are only ala, which accom- 

 pany the filaments to the insertion under the ger- 

 men, extremely alike to the ala which accompanies 

 the pedunculns of the flowers in the Tilia, and 

 which is commonly reputed a bractea *. 



I beg pardon, my dear friend ; but if the caution 

 is not a good one, it comes at least from a friendly 

 heart. 



Be so good as to present my compliments to 

 Mrs. Smith, and to your respectable mother. 

 I am most heartily yours, 



Joseph Correa de Serra. 



* I don't say these petals are bractece, but only the form of 

 them is like the bractea of the Til'ia flowers. 



