Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 10.djvu/52

 Rh, Xylomelum, and Lambertia are readily distinguished from Embothrium, Grevillea, and Hakea; and thus also Persoonia and Brabejum remarkably differ from Gevuina; while Bellendena differs from all others in having its stamina distinct from the calyx, affording however an indication of the real origin of these organs in the whole family.

The deviations from the usual structure of in this order are not many; but some of them are so singular a nature as to constitute the essential characters of the genera in which they take place. These genera are Simsia, Conospermum, and Synaphea, all of which are most truly syngenesious; for not only do their antheræ firmly cohere together, but the corresponding lobes of these being, when considered separately, entirely open, are so applied to each other as to form but one cell, without a trace of any intermediate membrane. In Simsia the four antheræ are perfect, each consisting, as in the rest of the order, of two lobes, and therefore the whole before bursting constitute four cells. Whereas in Conospermum and Synaphea one filament is entirely barren, the two lateral ones have each a single-lobed anthera, and the fourth alone is perfect: hence before bursting the whole form only two cells.

This remarkable structure, which can only be ascertained before the opening of the calyx, necessarily escaped Dr. Smith in describing his Conospermum, for I conclude he had only the expanded flower before him, and the appearance of the antheræ in this state after their separation justifies him in referring the genus to Tetrandria: but according to the view now given of its structure, it can have no other pretension to a place in this class than its belonging to Proteaceæ; and the order Syngenesia Monogamia being abolished, it must be referred to Triandria.

The only remaining anomaly in these parts occurs in landia,