Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 12.djvu/104

Rh

XI. Some Observations on the natural Family of Plants called. ''By Robert Brown, Esq. F.R.S. Libr. L.S.''

The class Syngenesia of the Linnean artificial system, as at present limited, constitutes a family strictly natural, and by far the most extensive in the vegetable kingdom. It is also, with the exception of Grasses only, the most generally diffused, and is almost equally remarkable with that order, for the great apparent uniformity in the structure of its essential parts of fructification.

This class of plants, for which I retain the established name, in preference to any of those recently proposed, has lately become the subject of a minute and accurate examination by Mons. Henri Cassini; two of whose Memoirs on the Style and Stamina of the class, already published in the Journal de Physique, are in my opinion models for botanical investigation.

A few years before the publication of M. Cassini's Memoirs on Compositæ I was induced to examine a considerable part of this extensive family, chiefly with a view to the more accurate determination of the New Holland plants belonging to it.

My principal object in the present paper is to communicate such general observations, the results of this investigation, as either have not yet been published by M. Cassini, or respecting which I consider myself to have anticipated that author in my General Remarks on