198 
and Synaphea, in all of which, these organs are connected in such a manner 
that the cohering lobes of two different anthers form only one cell. Another 
anomaly equally remarkable exists in Synaphea, the divisions of whose barren 
filament so intimately cohere with the stigma, as to be absolutely lost in its 
substance, while the style and undivided part of the filament remain perfectly 
distinct. In another place he remarks : “A circumstance occurs in some spe- 
cies of Persoonia, to which I have met with nothing similar in any other plant : 
the ovarium in this genus, whether it contain one or two ovula, has never 
more than one cell ; but in several of the 2 -seeded species, a cellular substance 
IS, after fecundation, interposed between the ovula, and this gradually indu- 
rating, acquires in the ripe fruit the same consistence as the putamen itself, 
from whose substance it cannot be distinguished ; and thus, a fruit originally 
of one cell becomes bilocular ; the cells, however, are not parallel, as in all 
those cases where they exist in the unimpregnated ovarium, but diverge more 
or less upwards.” Brown in Linn. Trans. 10. 35. This is subsequently 
explained, by the same author {King’s Appendix), by the cohesion of the outer 
membranes of the two collateral ovules, originally distinct, but finally consti- 
tuting this anomalous dissepiment, the inner membrane of the ovule conse- 
quently forming the outer coat of the seed. 
Geography. “ The favourite station of Proteacese is in dry, stony, ex- 
posed places, especially near the shore, where they occur also, though more 
rarely, in loose sand. Scarcely any of them require shelter, and none a good 
soil. A few are found in wet bogs, or even in shallow pools of fresh water ; 
and one, the Embothrium ferrugineum of Cavanilles, grows, according to him, 
in salt marshes. Respecting the height to which plants of this order ascend, 
a few facts are already known. The authors of the Flora Peruviana mention, 
in general terms, several species as being alpine ; and Humboldt, in his valu- 
able Chart of Equinoctial Botany, has given the mean height of Embothrium 
emarginatum about 9300 feet, assigning it a range of only 300 feet. On the 
summits of the mountains of Van Diemen’s Island, in about 43® south lat., at 
the computed height of about 4000 feet, I have found species of Embothrium, 
as well as other genera, hitherto observed in no other situation. Embothrium, 
however, as it is the most southern genus of any extent, so it is also, as might 
have been presumed, the most alpine of the family. Two genera only of this 
order are found in more than one continent ; Rhopala, the most northern 
genus, though chiefly occurring in America, is to be met with also in Cochin 
China, and in the Malay archipelago ; and Embothrium, the most southern 
genus of any extent, is common to New Holland and America. It is remark- 
able, that Proteacese are almost entirely confined to the southern hemisphere. 
This observation originated with Mr. Dryander; and the few exceptions 
hitherto known to it, occur considerably within the tropic. The fact is the 
more deserving of notice, as their diffusion is very extensive in the southern 
hemisphere, not merely in latitude and longitude, but also in elevation ; for 
they are not only found to exist in all the great southern continents, but seem 
to be generally, though very unequally, spread over their different regions : 
they have been observed also in the larger islands of New Zealand and New 
Caledonia ; but hitherto neither in any of the lesser ones, nor in Madagascar. 
As in America they have been found in Terra del Fuego, in Chile, Peru, and 
even Guiana, it is reasonable to conclude that the intermediate regions are not 
entirely destitute of them. But with -respect to this continent, it may be 
observed, that the number of species seems to be comparatively small ; their 
organisation but little varied ; and further, that they have a much greater 
affinity with those of New Holland than of Africa. Of the botany of South 
Africa scarce any thing is known, except that of the Cape of Good Hope, 
where this family occurs in the greatest abundance and variety ; but even from 
