OBSEEVATIONS 



ON 



C M P S I T M. 



The class Syngenesia of the Linnean artificial system, m 

 as at present limited, constitutes a family strictly natural, 

 and by far the most extensive in the vegetable kingdom. 

 It is also, with the exception of Grasses only, the most 

 generally diffused, and is almost equally remarkable with 

 that order, for the great apparent uniformity in the struc- 

 ture of its essential parts of fructification. 



This class of plants, for which 1 retain the established 

 name Composite, in preference to any of those recently 

 proposed, has lately become the subject of a minute and 

 accurate examination by Mons. Henri Cassini ; two of whose 

 Memoirs on the Style and Stamina of the class, already 

 published in the Journal de Physique, 1 are in my opinion 

 models for botanical investigation. 



A few years before the publication of M. Cassini's 

 Memoirs on Composite I was induced to examine a consi- 

 derable part of this extensive family, chiefly with a view to 

 the more accurate determination of the New Holland plants 

 belonging to it. 



My principal object in the present paper is to communi- 

 cate such general observations, the results of this investi- 

 gation, as either have not yet been published by M. Cassini, 

 or respecting which I consider myself to have anticipated 

 that author in my General Remarks on the Botany of New 



i Of 1813 and 1814. 



