532 



PROTEACEjE. 



[Perigynous Exouens. 



Order CCIV. PROTEACE^.— Proteads. 



Proteace*, Jim. Gen. (178.9); R. Brown in Linn. Trans. 10. 15. (1809); Prodr. 363 ; Suppl. Prim. 

 (1830); Endl. Gen. cxiii.; Meisner Gen. p. 331. 



Diagnosis.— Daphnal Exogens, with apetalous floioers, anthers bursting lengthwise, erect 



ovules, and a valvate calyx. 



Shrubs or small trees. Branches usually umbellate. Leaves hard, dry, divided or 



undivided, opposite or alternate, without stipules ; their cuticle often covered equally 



on both sides with stomates. Calyx 4-leaved, or 4 -cleft, 



with a valvate estivation. Stamens 4, sometimes in part 



sterile, opposite the segments of the calyx. Ovary con- 

 sisting of a single carpel, superior ; style simple ; stigma 



undivided ; ovule one, or two collateral, or several in 



two rows, anatropal or amphitropal, and ascending. Fruit 



dehiscent or inhehiscent. Seed without albumen ; em- 

 bryo with two or occasionally several cotyledons, straight; 



radicle inferior, next the hilum, or parallel with it. 



There is no difficulty in distinguishing this Order ; 



the hard woody texture of the leaves, the irregular 



tubular calyxes with a valvate aestivation, the stamens 



placed upon the lobes, along with a dehiscent fruit, at 



once characterise it. By these marks it is known from 



Daphnads and all other Orders. According to Brown, 



the radicle pointing towards the base of the fruit in all 



Proteads, is a circumstance of the greatest importance 



in distinguishing the Order from those most nearly related 



to it ; and its constancy is more remarkable, as it is 



not accompanied by the usual position or even unifor- 

 mity in the situation of the external umbilicus. — Linn. 

 Trans. 10. 36. He has also remarked, with his usual 



acuteness, that in consequence 



of the presence of hypogynous 

 scales, we may expect to find 

 octandrous genera belonging to 

 this family. The same writer 

 observes, that there is a pecu- 

 liarity in the structure of the 



stamens of certain genera of -*=- Fig cCCLXHI. 



Proteads, namely, Simsia, Cono- 

 spermum, and Synaphea, in all of which these organs are connected in such a manner 

 that the cohering lobes of two different anthers form only one cell. Another anomaly 

 equally remarkable exists in Synaphea, the divisions of whose barren filament so inti- 

 mately cohere with the stigma, as to be absolutely lost in its substance, while the style 

 and undivided part of the filament remain perfectly distinct. In another place he 

 remarks : " A circumstance occurs in some species of Persoonia, to which I have met 

 with nothing similar in any other plant : the ovarium in this genus, whether it contain 

 one or two ovula, has never more than one cell ; but in several of the 2-seeded species, 

 a cellular substance is, after fecundation, interposed between the ovula, and this gra- 

 dually indurating, acquires in the ripe fruit the same consistence as the putamen itself, 

 from whose substance it cannot be distinguished ; and thus, a fruit originally of one cell 

 becomes bilocular ; the cells, however, are not parallel, as in all those cases where they 

 exist in the unimpregnated ovarium, but diverge more or less upwards." This is sub- 

 sequently explained by the same author (King's Appendix), by the cohesion of the 

 outer membranes of the two collateral ovules, originally distinct, but finally constituting 

 this anomalous dissepiment, the inner membraue of the ovule consequently forming the 

 outer coat of the seed. 



A happier name than that of Proteads could not have been devised, for the diversity 

 of appearance presented by the various genera is such as it would be hard to parallel m 



Fig. CCCLXIII.— Synaphea ditatata. 

 and style and stigma. 



-Ferd. Bauer. 1. a flower; 2. one of its lobos ; 3. the ovary 



