QiNT THE PllOTEACE/E OF JUSSIEU. 13 



belong. Protea argentea of Linnaeus is the most striking- 

 example among the African species ; and my friend Mr. P-i 

 Ferdinand Bauer has observed a similar tendency in Protea 

 mellifera. 



Among the New Holland species, Banksia speciosa is the 

 sole instance, and even that only in certain circumstances, 

 of this manner of growth. 



The favourite station of Proteacese is in dry stony exposed 

 places, especially near the shores, where they occur alsoj 

 though more. rarely, in loose sand. Scarcely any of them 

 require shelter, and none a good soil. A few are found in 

 wet bogs, or even in shallow pools of fresh water ; and one, 

 the Embothrium ferruffineum of Cavanilles, grows, according 

 to him, in salt marshes. 



Respecting the height to which plants of this order 

 ascend, a few facts are already known. The authors of the 

 Flora Peruviana mention, in general terms, several species 

 as being alpine; and Humboldt, in his valuable Chart of 

 Equinoctial Botany, has given the mean height of Em- 

 bothrium emarginatum about 9300 feet, assigning it a range 

 of only 300 feet. On the summits of the mountains of 

 Van Diemen's Island, in about 43° south latitude, at the 

 computed height of about 4000 feet, I have found species 

 of Embothrmm, as well as other genera hitherto observed in 

 no other situation. Einbothrium, however, as it is the most 

 southern genus of any extent, so it is also, as might have 

 been presumed, the most alpine of the family. 



Two genera only of this order are found in more than 

 one continent : Bhopala, the most northern genus, which, 

 though chiefly occurring in America, is to be met with also 

 in Cochin-China and in the Malay Archipelago ; and Em- 

 bothrium, the most southern genus of any extent, is common 

 to New Holland and America. 



From this account of the geographical distribution of [25 

 the Proteacese, I proceed to make some general remarks on 

 the structure and modifications of their different parts. 

 The order, which consists of shrubs of the most rigid 

 nature, or of trees of moderate size, contains also one 

 herbaceous plant, my Sgmphionema paliidosum, which, how- 



