ON THE PROTEACEjE OP JUSSJEU. 9
as gynandrous, been ever supposed to belong to De- can dria.
An ceconomy, in many respects similar to that now described, obtains also in Orchidese ; in which, however, the processes connecting the antherse with the stigma, where they exist, are in many cases derived from the masses of pollen themselves ; but in others they as certainly originate from the stigma, or its glandular appendage.
The result of my examination of these two interesting orders of plants I hope hereafter to submit to the Society ; and I now proceed to the proper subject of the present paper.
The natural order of Protege, or, as it is less excep- tionably called, Proteace^e, was first established in the Genera Plantarum of the celebrated Jussieu; and the description there prefixed to it will, with a few alterations, still apply to the order, now that it has received so many additions, not only in species, but in very distinct genera, several of which were first published by Dr. Smith, in po the 4th vol. of the Society's Transactions, and others are in the present paper submitted to the consideration of botanists.
The general description and definition of the order will be most advantageously placed at the head of its systema- tic arrangement ; before entering upon which, I shall offer some remarks on its geographical distribution, and likewise on such modifications of structure in the different organs as appear to be of the greatest importance in indicating or characterising genera.
The geography of plants being as yet in its infancy, the smallest addition to our knowledge of a subject which promises to become of considerable importance, will pro- bably be received with indulgence ; and in this persuasion I venture to make the following observations on the order before us. In the first place, it is remarkable that the Proteace^e are almost entirely confined to the southern hemisphere. This observation originated with Mr. Dry- ander, and the few exceptions hitherto known to it, occur considerably within the tropic. The fact is the more
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