ON THE PROTEACEJE OF JUSSIEtJ. 15 



As to Proteacese, it must be acknowledged that in Banksia 

 both verticillated and scattered leaves occur ; but the leaves 

 constantly in threes in Lambertia seems to me a circum- 

 stance of even greater importance than the number of 

 flowers in the involucrum ; and the opposite leaves of 

 Xylomelum distinguish it at once both from Bhopala and 

 Hake a. 



Although the form and divisions of leaves in the order 

 are variable in no common degree, yet there are certain 

 genera, both among those of Africa and New Holland, 

 which the leaves even in these respects assist in indicating. 

 Thus, in that genus to which I have applied the name of 

 Protect (the Erodendrum of Mr. Salisbury), and I believe 

 also in my Leucadendron, there is no instance of a divided 

 or toothed leaf; thus also the leaves of Spatalla are fili- 

 form and undivided, and those oiBerruria filiform and almost 

 always pinnatifid. Their dichotomous divisions in Simsia 

 and Franklandia are still more characteristic ; and their 

 division and remarkable reticulation readily distinguish 

 Synaphea from Conospermum. 



The inflorescence in Froteacese, whatever use botanists 

 may think proper to make of it in their generic characters, 

 is of undoubted importance in determining genera, and [27 

 even in the primary division of the order it appears to be of 

 nearly equal consequence with the fruit itself; for, in 

 dividing the order into two sections from the structure of 

 the ovarium, it will be found that while all the single-seeded 

 genera have each flower subtended by a proper bractea, or 

 more rarely are without one, those with two or more seeds 

 have, with very few exceptions, the flowers of their spikes 

 or clusters disposed in pairs, each pair being furnished with 

 only one bractea common to both flowers : it may also be 

 observed that all the American and two thirds of the New 

 Holland species have this mode of inflorescence, while only 

 one instance of it occurs in Africa. 



The single envelope of the stamina and pistillum in Pro- 

 teacese I have, with Jussieu, denominated calyx, chiefly 

 because the stamina, of equal number with its laciniae, 

 are constantly opposite to them, and from the close analogy 



