ON THE PROTEACE^ OF JUSSIEU. 19 



The figure of the pollen has been attended to by a few 

 theoretical, but by hardly any practical botanists ; yet I am 

 inclined to think, not only from its consideration in this 

 family, but in many others, that it may be consulted with 

 advantage in fixing our notions of the limits of genera : 

 and though its minuteness may perhaps always exclude it 

 from a place in generic characters, yet it well deserves, to 

 use the words of Linnaeus when speaking of habit, to be 

 " occulte consulendus." 



Its usual figure in the order is triangular with secreting 

 angles, a beautiful contrivance for insuring impregnation 

 in a tribe, in which, from the very scanty, or in many cases 

 apparent want of secretion by the stigma, it must other- 

 wise have been very uncertain ; for by this form and secre- 

 tion, as well as by the singular ceconomy of the calyx, it 

 remains so long in contact with the stigma, as probably to 

 compensate for the somewhat defective structure of that 

 organ. 



From this figure the principal deviation is in the exten- 

 sive genera Banksia and Josephia, in all of which it is 

 elliptical or oblong, and either straight or bent into a semi- 

 lunar form; and in FranMandia and Aulaso, where it is 

 • spherical. The only remaining exception with which I am 

 acquainted is the original Enibothrium of Forster, his E. 

 coccineum, in which, as in Banksia, it is oblong ; a circum- 

 stance that, together with the more important character of 

 a regular club-shaped stigma, and some other differences, 

 has determined me to separate it from all the other species 

 of Embothrium, except E. lanceolatum of Flora Peruviana, 

 whose pollen however remains to be examined. 



The external modifications of the ovarium must be very 

 cautiously used in the generic characters of this family ; pa 

 even its being sessile or pedicellated is not always of suffi- 

 cient importance, though I think Mr. Salisbury has done 

 well in introducing it into his characters of Serruria and 

 Spatalla, in both which genera I had overlooked it before 

 the publication of his Essay. 



Its internal structure, which ought always to be ascer- 

 tained, will be found of the greatest importance in most 



