Page:Miscellaneousbot02brow.djvu/26

 10 ON THE PROTEACE^) OF JUSS1EU.

deserving of notice, as their diffusion is very extensive in the southern hemisphere, not merely in latitude and longi- tude, but also in elevation ; for they are not only found to exist in all the great southern continents, but seem to be generally, though very unequally, spread over their different regions : they have been observed also in the larger islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia ; but hitherto neither in any of the lesser ones, nor in Madagascar. As in America, they have been found in Terra del Fuego, in Chili, Peru, and even Guiana, it is reasonable to conclude that the intermediate regions are not entirely destitute of them. But with respect to this continent, it may be observed, that the number of species seems to be compara- tively small, their organization but little varied ; and further, that they have a much greater affinity with those si] of New Holland than of Africa.

Of the botany of South Africa, scarce anything is known, except that of the Cape of Good Hope, where this family occurs in the greatest abundance and variety ; but even from the single fact of a genuine species of Protea having been found in Abyssinia by Bruce, it may be presumed, that in some degree they are also spread over this continent.

With the shores, at least, of New Holland, under which I include Van Diemen's Island, we are now somewhat better acquainted, and in every known part of these, Proteaceae have been met with.

But it appears that, both in Africa and New Holland, the great mass of the order exists about the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope ; in which parallel it forms a striking feature in the vegetation of both continents.

What I am about to advance respecting the probable distribution of this family in New Holland, must be very cautiously received ; as it is in fact chiefly deduced from the remarks I have myself made in Captain Elinclers's Voyage, and subsequently during my short stay in the settlements of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Island, aided by what was long ago ascertained by Sir Joseph Banks, and by a very transitory inspection of an herbarium collected on the west coast, chiefly in the neighbourhood

�� �