PBOTEACEJE. 



397 



VI. STIRLINGIA SERIES. 



Slirlingia abrolanoides. 



Fig. 236. 

 Flower (|). 



Stirlingia* (fig. 236, 237) consists of Proteacea with regular Her- 

 maphrodite flowers and syngenesious anthers. The perianth consists 

 of four leaves, free above and finally reflexed. 

 The stamens, inserted on the perianth, consist 

 of a free filament, and an introrse two-celled 

 anther. Each cell, opening broadly inwards on 

 each side, is united by its edges to the corres- 

 ponding cell of the neighbouring anther to form 

 a single cavity containing the pollen. On the 

 separation of the two half-cells belonging to 

 two different anthers, the pollen is freed. The 

 gyna?ceum is composed of a one-celled ovary, 

 surmounted by a style which is dilated above 

 into a sort of concave stigmatiferous head. 

 Within the ovary is a single ascending ana- 

 tropous ovule, with its micropyle downwards and outwards, 

 fruit is a hairy one-seeded nut. The genus Stirlingia 

 consists of some half-score species 2 of shrubs from 

 Australia ; their leaves are alternate and repeatedly 

 incised into dichotomous filiform or flattened strips. 

 The flowers form capitula, which are solitary, or 

 more frequently in simple or ramified racemes. 

 This series also contains the genera Conospermum 

 and Synaphea, especially remarkable for their ir- 

 regular androceum and descending ovule. The confluence of the ad- 

 jacent anthers is the chief reason for placing them next to Stirlingia. 



Conospermum* (fig. 2 IS) has regular or irregular hermaphrodite 

 flowers. The perianth is tubular, gamophyllous above ; it then 

 expands into a limb of four equal or unequal lobes valvate in the 

 bud. When the lobes are unequal, the posterior one is largest and is 

 reflected into a sort of helmet (fig. 23S), forming a sort of posterior 



The 



Stirlingia simplex. 



Fig. 237. 

 Diagram. 



1 Endl., Gen., n. 2133 ; Iconogr., t. 22.— 

 Meissn., Prodr., 325. — Simsia R. Br., in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc, x. 155; Prodr., 369; Suppl., 9 (ncc 

 Pers.) 



2 Meissn., in PI. Preiss., i. 515; in Hook. 

 Journ. (1852), 184. — Lindl., Swan Eiv., 30, n. 



111. — F. Muell., Fragm., vi. 248.— BeOTH. & 

 F. Muell., Fl. Austr., v. 356. 



3 Conospermum S\i., in Trans. Linn. Soc, iv. 

 213; Exot. Bot., ii. t. 45.— R. Bb., in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc, x. 48, L53 ; Prodr., 368 ; Suppl . 9. 

 —Endl., Gen., n. 2132.— Meissn., Prodr.,316, 

 698. 



