| Mr. Brown, on the Proteaceae of Jussieu. | 17 |
was induced to adopt it more from the consideration of the close analogy these plants have with the manifestly pentandrous Apocineæ, than from regarding them as strictly referable to this class; for, in his natural generic characters of Asclepias and Pergularia, he very clearly describes both these genera as gynandrous.
Jussieu has entered more fully into the subject, but seems also to have been chiefly guided by this analogy and the observations of others; as he concludes by expressing his doubts, respecting both the origin and use of the parts.
Richard, whose description of these organs I find in Persoon's Synopsis, has indeed come nearer to the solution to the question; his account, however, of the origin of the lateral processes hereafter mentioned, proves that this description was not altogether formed on actual observation.
Jacquin, the first botanist that submitted these plants to minute examination, and whose figures well enough illustrate most points of their structure, has adopted a very different opinion, referring them to Gynandria, in which he is followed by Koelreuter, Rottboell and Cavanilles, all of whom likwise agree with him in considering them as decandrous; while Dr. Smith, in his late valuable Introduction to Botany, who conceives that "no plants can be more truly gynandrous," regards them as having only five antheræ. And lastly Desfontaines supposes the five glands of the stigma to be the true antheræ, considering the attached masses of pollen as mere appendages to these.
All the authors who thus refer them to Gynandria seem quite confident in the justness of their views; and yet the inspection of a single flower bud overturns, as it appears to me, with irresistible evidence, the conclusion they had formed from premises apparently so satisfactory.
My attention, while in New Holland, having been much en-
| vol. x. | d | gaged |
