310 OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURAL FAMILY 



It will be attended with similar advantage to form a 

 separate family of 



Brunonia, 



as a link of equal importance, connecting Compositce with 

 Goodenovice, but from both of which it is in many respects 

 very distinct. As I have formerly described this genus, 

 and made several observations on its principal affinities/ 

 1 shall here only state the more important relations and 

 distinctions between it and those families to which it 

 appears to me most nearly to approach. 



Brunonia agrees with Goodenovim in the remarkable 

 indusium of the stigma ; in the structure and connexion of 

 133] the antherse; in the seed being erect; and essentially 

 in the gestivation of corolla. It differs from them in having 

 both calyx and corolla distinct from the ovarium ; in the 

 disposition of vessels in the corolla ; in the filaments being 

 jointed at top ; in the seed being without albumen ; and 

 in its remarkable inflorescence, compatible, indeed, with 

 the nature of the irregularity in the corolla of GoodenovicB , 

 but which can hardly coexist with that characterizing 

 Lobeliacece^ 



With CompositcB it agrees essentially in inflorescence ; in 

 the aestivation of corolla ; in the remarkable joint or change 

 of texture in the apex of its filaments ; and in the struc- 

 ture of the ovarium and seed. It differs from them in 

 having ovarium liherimi or supemin ; in the want of a glan- 

 dular disk ; in the immediately hypogynous insertion of 

 the filaments ; in the indusium of the stigma ; and in the 

 vascular structure of the corolla, whose tube has five nerves 

 only, and these continued through the axes of the lacinise, 

 either terminating simply (as is at least frequently the case 

 in Brunonia sericea), or (as in B. australis) dividing at top 

 into two recurrent branches forming lateral nerves, at first 

 sight resembling those of Compositse, but which hardly 

 reach to the base of the lacinise. 



It is a cui'ious circumstance that Brunonia should so 



1 Prod. Flor. Nov. HoU. p. 589. 



' See Fliudei's's Voyage to Terra Australis, ii. p. 559 [oy/. i, p. 32]. 



