OF KINGIA. 439 



reality much more nearly approaches to that of Dracaena 

 Draco, allowance being made for the greater number, and 

 extreme narrowness of leaves, to which all the radiating [sss 



vessels belong/^ 



Obs. II. —I have placed Kingia in the natural order 

 Junceae along with Dasypogon, Calectasia and Xerotes, 

 genera peculiar to New Holland, and of which the two 

 former have hitherto been observed only, along with it, 

 on the shores of King George's Sound. 



The striking resemblance of Kingia, in caudex and 

 leaves, to Xanthorrhcea, cannot fail to suggest its affinity 

 to that genus also. Although this affinity is not con- 1 

 firmed by a minute comparison of the parts of fructifica- 

 tion, a sufficient agreement is still manifest to strengthen 

 the doubts formerly expressed of the importance of those 

 characters by which I attempted to define certain families, 

 of the great class Liliacese. 



In addition, however, to the difference in texture of 

 the outer coat of the seed, and in those other points, on 

 which I then chiefly depended in distinguishing Juncese 

 from Asphodelese, a more important character in Juncese 

 exists in the position of the embryo, whose radicle points 

 always to the base of the seed, the external umbilicus 

 being placed in the axis of the inner or ventral surface, 

 either immediately above the base as in Kingia, or 

 towards the middle, as in Xerotes. 



Obs. III. — On the structure of the Unimpregnated [539 

 OvuLUM in Fhcenogamous Plants. 



The description which I have given of the Ovulum of 

 Kingia, though essentially different from the accounts hi- 

 therto published of that organ before fecundation, in 



' My knowledge of this remarkable structure of Xantliorrhasa is chiefly 

 derived from specimens of the caudex of one of the larger species of the genus, 

 brought from Port Jackson, and deposited in tlie collection at the Jardin du 

 Koi of Paris by M. Gaudicliaud, the very intelligent bol-auist who was attaohid 

 to Captain De I'reycinet's voyage. 



