ON THE PROTEACEiE OF JTJSSIEU. 17 



but as he has not defined it, and as his commentator Reuss 

 has given the very different aestivation of grasses as an ex- 

 ample, I have, in introducing this circumstance into the 

 general description of the order, specified it at length. 



From the colour of the calyx, many genera of Proteaceae 

 are indicated vpith tolerable certainty. Thus Synaphea is 

 distinguished from Conospermum by its yellow fiowers ; 

 and no instance of yellow fiowers has been met with in the 

 numerous genera Serruria and Spatalla, nor any of purple in 

 Leucadendron. In some genera, however, as in Banhsia, c^a 

 and Isopogon, it is evidently of very little importance. 



The fleshy or scale-like bodies, which surround the 

 ovarium in the greater number of plants of this family, are 

 in many cases so manifestly secreting organs, that it is 

 surprising Mr. Salisbury should hesitate in considering 

 them as nectaria, and denominate them calU ; a term 

 which excludes the idea of secretion. But whatever their 

 functions may be, great assistance may certainly be derived 

 from their various modifications, in distinguishing genera. 

 Their importance however in this respect, like that of all 

 other parts, not only in this, but, as I apprehend, in every 

 natural family, is very unequal, and in some cases seems 

 *"to be entirely lost. Thus, in the genus Leucadendron as 

 it is here constituted, they are wanting in several species, 

 and in some I am inclined to think exist only in the males. 



In most of the regular-fiowered genera they are four in 

 number, and alternate with the leaves or lacinise of the 

 calyx. In these genera they are also generally in the form 

 of succulent scales, distinct, or more rarely cohering at 

 their base, and in a very few instances adhering to the 

 calyx ; but in Persoonia they are nearly round and fieshy, 

 and in Bellendena, Symphionema, Simsia, Agastachya, Pe- 

 tropMla, and Isopogon, they are entirely wanting. 



In the irregular-fiowered genera with two or many seeds 

 their number is less than four, in most cases only one 

 exists, in a few others three, and in some none. 



Varieties in the structure or apparent origin of the 

 STAMINA, afford, as might be expected, important generic 

 characters. Their usual insertion in the order is in the 



2 



