352 Mr. Robert Brown’s description of Kingia. 
arc at which he has arrived with the help of Hirsch’s tables. 
Now there is perhaps no problem in pure mathematics that 
has more engaged the attention of geometers than the various 
ways of computing elliptic arcs. In particular Legendre has 
written largely on this subject, and has published extensive 
tables for the use of the calculator. Hence there is some dif- 
ficulty as to the sense in which we are to understand the word 
simple. Is it to be taken generally in reference to the labours 
of all mathematicians ? Or is it merely intended to mark a con- 
trast with the complicated calculations of M. Bessel? This is 
a point which I shall not take upon me to decide; although I 
should not be surprised if it shall be found that, on the present 
as on other occasions, this member of the Royal Institution has 
outdone, with a stroke of his pen, all that has hitherto been at- 
tempted on the same subject. After all it may perhaps be al- 
ledged that the word in question slipt in cursorily, and its 
meaning must not therefore be scanned too precisely. In con- 
clusion should any part of these investigations happen to hit 
the fancy of the Editor of the Journal of Science, I beg ieave 
to suggest the propriety of his taking it from the pages of this 
Journal without waiting to get it at second-hand from Germany. 
May, 5, 1826. J. Ivory. 
LIV. Character and Description of Kingia, a new Genus of 
Plants found on the South-west Coast of New Holland: with 
Observations on the Structure of its Unimpregnated Ovulum ; 
and on the Female Flower of Cycadee and Conifera. By 
Rosert Brown, Esq., F.R.S.S.L. § E., FL.S. 
(Read before the Linnean Society of London, Nov. 1 &15, 1825*.) 
| the Botanical Appendix to the Voyage to Terra Australis, 
I have mentioned a plant of very remarkable appearance, 
observed in the year 1801, near the shores of King George the 
Third’s Sound, in Mr. Westall’s view of which, published in 
Captain Flinders’s Narrative, it is introduced. 
The plant in question was then found with only the imper- 
fect remains of fructification: I judged of its affinities, there- 
fore, merely from its habit, and as in this respect it entirely 
agrees with Xanthorrhcea, included the short notice given of 
it in my remarks on Asphodelez, to which that genus was re- 
ferred}. Mr. Cunningham, the botanist attached to Captain 
* From Captain King’s Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts 
of Australia, 1826, vol. ii. p. 534. 
+ Flinders’s Voyage, vol. ii. p. 576. 
King’s 
