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 ON THE PROTEACEyE OF JUSS1EU. 21

its form in both these genera will readily serve to separate them from Xylomelum and Bhopala ; and thus also Spatalla remarkably differs from Adenanthos. Upon the whole, however, it seems that its obliquity is of greater import- ance than its form ; for this, when existing in any great degree, is generally accompanied with a corresponding irre- gularity in the calyx : but as this irregularity is produced for the purpose of bringing all the antherse into contact with the stigma, so its obliquity in the dioiceous genera Leucadendron and Aulax is not attended with so great a degree of irregularity, which would here serve no end, im- pregnation depending on the pollen of different individuals, to insure which the surface of the stigma in these genera is rough with papulae ; a circumstance that, together with its form, readily distinguishes them from all others of the order.

In Si/naphea, the stigma or summit of the style inoscu- lates 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 alone, when occurring in several dm species, would have determined me to separate these plants from Conospermum: but being also accompanied by other remarkable differences, both of structure and appearance, no genus, I apprehend, can be better founded than this.

That the opinion of Christian Knaut and Vaillant re- specting the non-existence of naked seeds is correct when anatomically considered, there can be no doubt ; but the practical utility of deviating in this subject from the common language of botanists may still be questioned : and accord- ingly Gsertner, who was fully aware of the truth of their position, has nevertheless continued to describe the seeds of many plants as naked. I confess however I am inclined to adopt the opposite decision of the French botanists, at the head of whom is Richard, who has also proposed terms for distinguishing the various species hitherto confounded under the name of naked seeds. The fruit of the mono- spermous genera of Proteacese might probably be with

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