sidering the latter as barren filaments; we may therefore expect to find octandrous genera belonging to this family. While the persistence and induration of the lower half of the perianthium in this genus, and the perigynous origin of the squamæ, which in other genera of the order are hypogynous, render it not improbable that plants may hereafter be discovered having a calyx absolutely cohering with the ovarium, which nevertheless it may be necessary to refer to Proteaceæ.
Elæagneæ, in which the tendency to cohesion of the calyx and ovarium is still more obvious than in Franklandia, approach very near to Proteaceæ in most respects, and the single difference in fructification between these two orders, consisting in the stamina being opposite to the laciniæ of the calyx in the latter and alternating with them in the former, is not an insuperable objection to their union; for Drapetes, which evidently belongs to Thymeleæ, has, in opposition to the rest of that order, its stamina alternating with the divisions of the perianthium.
SYNAPHEA.
Old. Nat. Proteaceæ.
Syst. Linn. Triandria Monogynia.
Char. Gen. Perianthium tubulosum, 4-fidum, ringens. Antheræ tres, inclusæ: inferior didyma cum lateralibus dimidiatis primo cohærens in vaginam bilocularem, lobis proximis vicinarum loculum unicum constituentibus. Stigma filamento superiore sterili connatum. Nux.
Synaphea dilatata. Tab. 7.
Synaphea foliis apice dilatatis trilobis: lobis inciso-dentatis, petiolis spicisque villosis, stigmate bicorni. Linn. soc. transact. 10, p. 156. Prodr. fl. nov. holl. 370. Conospermum recticulatum. Smith in Rees Cycloped.
In exposed barren situations, near the shores of King George's Sound; gathered in flower and fruit, in December, 1801.
DESC. Fruticulus procumbens teres crassitie pennæ corvinæ, subramosus, villis patulis mollibus tomentoque appresso cinereus. Folia alterna, elongato-petiolata, adscendentia, cuneata, basi valde attenuata, apice dilatato trifido, lobis incisis, segmentis