| Mr. Brown, on the Proteaceae of Jussieu. | 33 |
them from that remarkable section of the genus, which I have at present united with them and called Cyclopteræ. Its length also, when compared with that of the calyx, seems in some cases to be of importance, as in distinguishing Adenanthos from Spatalla; but in general this circumstance can hardly be had recourse to except in specific characters.
The form of the stigma is in many cases of considerable importance in characterizing genera, a fact which could not escape the penetration of Dr. Smith when establishing his new genera of this order: thus its conical papilla in the Conchium (the Hakea of Schrader) will in many, though certainly not in all cases, distinguish it from Grevillea: but its form in both these genera will readily serve to separate them from Xylomelum and Rhopala; and thus also Spatalla remarkably differs from Adenanthos. Upon the whole, however, it seems that its obliquity is of greater importance than its form; for this, when existing in any great degree, is generally accompanied with a corresponding irregularity in the calyx: but as this irregularity is produced for the purpose of bringing all the antheræ into contact with the stigma, so its obliquity in the dioicous genera Leucadendron and Aulax is not attended with so great a degree of irregularity, which would here serve no end, impregnation depending on the pollen of different individuals, to insure which the surface of the stigma in these genera is rough with papulæ; a circumstance that, together with its form, readily distinguishes them from all others of the order.
In Synaphea, the stigma or summit of the style inosculates with the divisions of the barren filament, which in some species appear beyond it in horn-like processes, but in others are entirely lost in its substance. I am acquainted with nothing like this in the whole vegetable kingdom; and such a singularity
| vol. x. | f | alone, |
