Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 10.djvu/37

 {| width="100%"
 * width="10%" align="left" |
 * width="80%" align="center" | ( 15 )
 * width="10%" align="right" |
 * }
 * }

IV. On the Proteaceae of Jussieu By Mr. Robert Brown, Lib.L.S.

Read Jan. 17, 1809.

Linnean system of botany, though confessedly artificial, has not only contributed more than all others to facilitate the knowledge of species, but, by constantly directing the attention to those essential parts of the flower on which it is founded, has made us acquainted with more of their important modifications that we probably should have known, had it not been generally adopted, and has thus laid a more solid foundation for the establishment of a natural arrangement, the superior importance of which no one has been more fully impressed with than Linnæus himself.

There are still, however, certain circumstances respecting the stamina and pistilla, which appear to me to have been much less attended to than they deserve, both by Linnæus and succeeding botanists. What I chiefly allude to is the state of these organs before the expansion of the flower. The utility of ascertaining the internal condition of the ovarium before fœcundation will hardly be called in question, now that the immortal works of Gærtner and Jussieu have demonstrated the necessity of minutely studying the fruits of plants in attempting to arrange them according to the sum of their affinities, as in many cases the true nature of the ripe fruit, especially with respect to the placentation of the seeds, can only be determined by this means. Its importance is indeed expressly inculcated by many botanists,