Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 10.djvu/40

 {| width="100%" by the plants of this family, the species in that continent being both numerous and with difficulty reducible to established genera: I there observed the following facts concerning them, all of which I have, since my return to England, confirmed by the examination of different species of the same tribe.
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 * width="80%" align="center" | Mr., on the Proteaceae of Jussieu.
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The observations of Jacquin on this subject being generally known, it must be unnecessary to enter into a minute description of those organs which are well exhibited by his figures in every respect, except as to the origin of the supposed antheræ.

If a flower bud of any plant of this family, while scarcely half the size it attains immediately before expansion, be carefully examined, it will be found that the polleniferous sacs, as they are termed by Jacquin and his followers, in which they suppose the antheræ to be merely immersed, are really the organs by which the fœcundating matter is secreted: for at this period they are perfectly closed, and consequently all communication cut off between the stigma and their contents now consisting of a turbid fluid or pulpy mass. If the stigma be at the same time observed, the gland-like bodies which originate in its grooved angles are already visible; but, instead of having the cartilaginous or horny texture which they are length acquire, are as yet semi-fluid, and of hardly a determinate form. Near the base of each side of these grooves a more superficial depression is observable, which, though in some cases extremely short, is in others of considerable length, and generally forms a right angle with the corresponding groove. In these depressions, the processes by which, at a more advanced stage, the contents of the antheræ are connected with the stigma, are immersed, and at this period they are found to be semi-fluid. By degrees the glands, as well as their lateral processes, acquire a firmer consistence, and the inferior or outer extremity of each of the processes, being extended beyond its