314
ON THE STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES
OF
CEPHALOTUS.
In the Botanical appendix of Captain Flinders's Voyage to Terra Australis,[1] a figure and description of Cephalotus follicularis are given, in some respects more complete than those of M. Labillardière, by whom this remarkable plant, a native of the south-west coast of New Holland, was first published. Both accounts, however, are equally imperfect with regard to the fruit; and my principal object in the present communication is to supply that deficiency.
My earliest knowledge of the ripe fruit of Cephalotus was obtained from a single specimen, sent in 1815 by M. [315 Leschenault, who had found the plant in February 1803 near the shores of King George's Sound, where I had gathered it in a less advanced state in the beginning of January 1802.
I have, however, more recently, received numerous specimens with ripe seeds from Mr. William Baxter, who collected them also at King George's Sound in 1829.
Cephalotus was introduced in 1823 from the same place by Capt. King, into His Majesty's Botanic Garden at Kew, where it flowered repeatedly, and ripened seeds from which several plants have been raised. A figure of one of these with expanded flowers, but still without fruit, has lately been published by Dr. Hooker in the Botanical Magazine; and a plant brought also from King George's Sound in 1829 by Mr. William Baxter is now in flower in Mr. Knight's nursery.
The following account of the ripe fruit will serve as a
