PROTEACE. 393 
III. PERSOONIA SERIES. 
Persoonia' (fig. 232) has regular hermaphrodite flowers. The 
perianth consists of four valvate leaves, free or united below. The 
androceum consists of four stamens 
with introrse two-celled anthers, su- 
perposed to the perianth-leaves. But 
the filaments of these stamens are 
distinct and free for a certain distance. 
Four hypogynous glands, alternate 
with the perianth-leaves, surround the 
base of the ovary, which is surmounted 
by an exserted style with a truncate or 
dilated stigmatiferous apex. In the 
cell are seen one or two’ descending 
orthotropous ovules with the micro- 
pyle inferior. The fruit is a berry or a drupe, with a thin stone 
whose cell is divided by a false septum into two cavities, each of 
which contains a seed in the dispermous fruits. Within the seed 
coats is a fleshy exalbuminous embryo.? Persoonia consists of trees 
and shrubs, with usually alternate simple entire coriaceous leaves ; 
the flowers‘ are axillary pedunculate, solitary or few together, rarely 
forming terminal racemes, through the replacement of the leaves 
of the branch by bracts. About seventy species’ have been de- 
scribed, all natives of Australia and New Zealand. 
Next to Persoonia come five closely analogous genera : Symphyonema, 
in which the ovaries are also indifferently uni- or biovulate; and 
Faurea, Brabejum, Cenarrhenes, and Agastachys, where the ovule is 
Persoonia salicina. 
Fia. 232. 
Longitudinal section of flower (2). 
1 §m., in Zrans. Linn. Soc., iv. 215; Evxot. 5 Prrs., Syn, i. 118.—Sm., Exot. Bot., ii. 
Bot., ii. t. 83.—R. Br., in Trans. Linn, Soc., x. 
160; Prodr., 371; Suppl. 12.—Gzrtn., Fruct., 
iii, 218, t. 220.—ENDL., Gen., n. 2138.— MEIssw., 
Prodr., 329.—Pentadactylon GmERTN., loc. cit. 
—Linkia Cav., Icon. iv. 61, t. 189 (nec 
PERs.). 
2 Thenumber may vary in flowers on the same 
plant, and even on the same branch. 
3 There are often more than two cotyledons, as 
R. Brown showed as early as 1830. 
+ Yellowish in colour. 
47, t. 83.—Laxitt., Nouv.-Holl., i. 33, t. 45.— 
Grau., in James. N. Phil. Journ. (1828), 177. 
—AypR., Bot. Repos., t. '74,'7'7.—Hook., Icon., 
t, 425.—A. Cunn., in Bot. Mag., t. 3513; in 
Field N. South-Wal., 329.—Linvt., Swan Riv., 
35., n. 172, 174,.—Krep., in Hook. Journ. (1855), 
72.—Hoox. F., in Hook. Journ., vi. 283.— 
Mutssn., in Hook. Journ. (1852), 185; (1855), 
71.—F.MUELL., Fragm., v.37; vi.220.— BENTH. 
& F. Mur, Fl. Austr., v. 380.—Watp., Ann,, 
i, 590. 
