90 HISTORY OF BOTANY 



observations on the flowers of the Polygalaceae, and the 

 limits of this order are denned anew as based on these 

 observations. Similarly, in the general account of 

 Australian botany I have just referred to, he worked 

 out the true morphology of the curious and deceptive 

 inflorescence of the Euphorbiaceae and the almost 

 equally puzzling inflorescence of the grasses. 



During the years that followed, the newly made 

 collections of travellers, more especially on the African 

 continent, were sent to Brown for report, and the results 

 of his labours on them were embodied in a succession of 

 memoirs on the same lines as those he had followed in 

 dealing with the Proteaceae. Many well-known groups 

 were analysed and put into proper order, more especially 

 the Cruciferae, Capparidaceae, Resedaceae, Leguminosae, 

 and Compositae. In all these researches and many others 

 of a like nature Brown did immense service to the cause 

 of the " Natural System," in the first place by invariably 

 discussing the orders from that point of view only and, 

 without actually attacking the Linnean system, dealing 

 it a crushing blow by simply ignoring it altogether, 

 incidentally bringing out in his own treatment of the 

 orders the fundamental correctness of the natural system. 



Although invited to occupy the chair of botany both 

 at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities, Brown pre- 

 ferred to remain in London and, in the seclusion of 

 his study, to continue to work unobtrusively at the 

 collections put in his charge until the day of his death 

 in 1858. 



One of the best known papers that came from Brown's 

 pen during this period was a monograph on the genus 

 Kingia, belonging to the Liliaceae. As an appendix to 

 it he printed an account of his investigations into the 

 structure of the ovule in flowering plants in general, and 

 also a discussion of the reproductive organs of Cycads 

 and Conifers. In the first of these contributions Brown 

 made some remarkable statements. He described the 



