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the single fact of a genuine species of Protea having been found in Abyssinia 
by Bruce, it may be presumed that in some degree they are also spread over 
this continent. With the shores, at least, of New Holland, under which I 
include Van Diemen’s Island, we are now somewhat better acquainted; and 
in every known part of these, Proteacese have been met with. But it appears, that 
both in Africa and New Holland the great mass of the order exists about the 
latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, in which parallel it forms a striking feature 
in the vegetation of both continents. What I am about to advance respecting 
the probable distribution of this family in New Holland must be very cautiously 
received, as it is in fact chiefly deduced from the remarks I have myself made 
in Captain Flinders’s Voyage, and subsequently during my short stay in the 
settlements of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Island, aided by what was 
long ago ascertained by Sir Joseph Banks, and by a very transitory inspection 
of an herbarium collected on the west coast, chiefly in the neighbourhood of 
Shark’s Bay, by the botanists attached to the expe^tion of Captain Baudin. 
From knowledge so acquired, I am inclined to hazard the following observa- 
tions : — The mass of the order, though extending through the whole of the 
parallel already mentioned, is by no means equal in every part of it ; but on 
the south-west coast forms a more decided feature in the vegetation of the 
country, and contains a far greater number of species, than on the east ; and 
in that part of the south coast which was first examined by Captain FUnders, 
it seems to be more scanty than at either of the extremes. On the west coast 
also, the species, upon the whole, are more similar to those of Africa than on 
the east, where they bear a somewhat greater resemblance to the American 
portion of the order. From the parallel of the map, the order diminishes in 
both directions ; but the diminution towards the north is probably more rapid 
on the east than on the west coast. Within the tropic, on the east coast, no 
genera have hitherto been observed, which are not also found beyond it ; un- 
less that section of Grevillea, which I have called Cycloptera, be considered as 
a genus : whereas, at the southern limit of the order several genera make 
their appearance, which do not occur in its chief parallel. The most numerous 
genera are also the most widely diffused. Thus Grevillea, Hakea, Banksia, 
and Persoonia, extensive in species in the order in which they are here men- 
tioned, are spread nearly in the same proportion ; and they are likewise the 
only genera that have as yet been observed within the tropic. Of such of the 
remaining genera as consist of several species, some, as Isopogon, Petrophila, 
Conospermum, and Lambertia, are found in every part of the principal parallel, 
but hardly exist beyond it. Others, as Josephea and Synaphea, equally 
limited to this parallel, have been observed only towards its western ex- 
tremity ; while Embothrium (comprehending, for the present, under this name 
all the many-seeded plants of the order), which is chiefly found on the east 
coast, and makes very little progress towards the west, advances to the utmost 
limit of south latitude, and there ascends to the summits of the highest 
mountains. Genera consisting of one or very few species, and which exhibit 
generally the most remarkable deviations from the usual structure of the 
order, are the most local, and are found either in the principal parallel, or in 
the highest latitude. The range of species in the whole of the order seems to 
be very limited ; and the few cases which may be considered as exceptions to 
this, occur in the most extensive genera, and in such of their species as are 
most strictly natives of the shores. Thus Banksia integrifolia, which grows 
more within the influence of the sea than any plant of the order, is probably 
also the most widely extended, at least in one direction, being found within 
the tropic, and in as high a latitude as 40®. It is remarkable, however, that 
with so considerable a range in latitude, its extension in longitude is com- 
paratively small ; and it is still more worthy of notice, that no species of this 
