10 ON THE PROTEACEiE OP JUSSIEU. 



deserving of notice, as their diffusion is very extensive in 

 the southern hemisphere, not merely in latitude and longi- 

 tude, but also in elevation ; for they are not only found to 

 exist in all the great southern continents, but seem to be 

 generally, though very unequally, spread over their different 

 regions : they have been observed also in the larger islands 

 of New Zealand and New Caledonia ; but hitherto neither 

 in any of the lesser ones, nor in Madagascar. As in 

 America, they have been found in Terra del Fuego, in 

 Chili, Peru, and even Guiana, it is reasonable to conclude 

 that the intermediate regions are not entirely destitute of 

 them. But with respect to this continent, it may be 

 observed, that the number of species seems to be compara- 

 tively small, their organization but little varied ; and 

 further, that they have a much greater affinity with those 

 21] of New Holland than of Africa. 



Of the botany of South Africa, scarce anything is known, 

 except that of the Cape of Good Hope, where this family 

 occurs in the greatest abundance and variety; but even 

 from the single fact of a genuine species of Protea having 

 been found in Abyssinia by Bruce, it may be presumed, that 

 in some degree they are also spread over this continent. 



With the shores, at least, of New Holland, under which 

 I include Van Diemen's Island, we are now somewhat 

 better acquainted, and in every known part of these, 

 Proteacese have been met with. 



But it appears that, both in Africa and New Holland, 

 the great mass of the order exists about the latitude of the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; in which parallel it forms a striking 

 feature in the vegetation of both continents. 



What I am about to advance respecting the probable 

 distribution of this family in New Holland, must be very 

 cautiously received ; as it is in fact chiefly deduced from 

 the remarks I have myself made in Captain Flinders's 

 Voyage, and subsequently during my short stay in the 

 settlements of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Island, 

 aided by what was long ago ascertained by Sir Joseph 

 Banks, and by a very transitory inspection of an herbarium 

 collected on the west coast, chiefly in the neighbourhood 



