Volume II Part 55 (1/2)

(*Footnote. Mem. de l'Acad. des Scien. de Paris 1775 page 518.)

The second view suggested, in which the anthera in Cycadeae is considered as producing on its surface an indefinite number of pollen ma.s.ses, each enclosed in its proper membrane, would derive its only support from a few remote a.n.a.logies: as from those antherae, whose loculi are sub-divided into a definite, or more rarely an indefinite, number of cells, and especially from the structure of the stamina of Visc.u.m alb.u.m.

I may remark, that the opinion of M. Richard,* who considers these grains, or ma.s.ses, as unilocular antherae, each of which const.i.tutes a male flower, seems to be attended with nearly equal difficulties.

(*Footnote. Dict. Cla.s.s. d'Hist. Nat. tome 5 page 216.)

The a.n.a.logy between the male and female organs in Coniferae, the existence of an open ovarium being a.s.sumed, is at first sight more apparent than in Cycadeae. In Coniferae, however, the pollen is certainly not naked, but is enclosed in a membrane similar to the lobe of an ordinary anthera. And in those genera in which each squama of the amentum produces two marginal lobes only, as Pinus, Podocarpus, Dacrydium, Salisburia, and Phyllocladus, it nearly resembles the more general form of the antherae in other Phaenogamous plants. But the difficulty occurs in those genera which have an increased number of lobes on each squama, as Agathis and Araucaria, where their number is considerable and apparently indefinite, and more particularly still in Cunninghamia, or Belis,* in which the lobes, though only three in number, agree in this respect, as well as in insertion and direction, with the ovula. The supposition, that in such cases all the lobes of each squama are cells of one and the same anthera, receives but little support either from the origin and arrangement of the lobes themselves, or from the structure of other phaenogamous plants: the only cases of apparent, though doubtful, a.n.a.logy that I can at present recollect occurring in Aphyteia, and perhaps in some Cucurbitaceae.

(*Footnote. In communicating specimens of this plant to the late M.

Richard, for his intended monograph of Coniferae, I added some remarks on its structure, agreeing with those here made. I at the same time requested that, if he objected to Mr. Salisbury's Belis as liable to be confounded with Bellis, the genus might be named Cunninghamia, to commemorate the merits of Mr. James Cunningham, an excellent observer in his time, by whom this plant was discovered; and in honour of Mr. Allan Cunningham, the very deserving botanist who accompanied Mr. Oxley in his first expedition into the interior of New South Wales, and Captain King in all his voyages of survey of the Coasts of New Holland.)

That part of my subject, therefore, which relates to the a.n.a.logy between the male and female flowers in Cycadeae and Coniferae, I consider the least satisfactory, both in regard to the immediate question of the existence of an anomalous ovarium in these families, and to the hypothesis repeatedly referred to, of the origin of the s.e.xual organs of all phaenogamous plants.

In concluding this digression, I have to express my regret that it should have so far exceeded the limits proper for its introduction into the present work. In giving an account, however, of the genus of plants to which it is annexed, I had to describe a structure, of whose nature and importance it was necessary I should show myself aware; and circ.u.mstances have occurred while I was engaged in preparing this account, which determined me to enter much more fully into the subject than I had originally intended.

APPENDIX C.

AN ACCOUNT OF SOME GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, COLLECTED BY CAPTAIN P.P. KING, IN HIS SURVEY OF THE COASTS OF AUSTRALIA, AND BY ROBERT BROWN, ESQUIRE, ON THE Sh.o.r.eS OF THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA, DURING THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN FLINDERS.

BY WILLIAM HENRY FITTON, M.D., F.R.S., V.P.G.S.

[READ BEFORE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 4TH NOVEMBER, 1825.]

The following enumeration of specimens from the coasts of Australia, commences, with the survey of Captain King, on the eastern sh.o.r.e, about the lat.i.tude of twenty-two degrees, proceeding northward and westward: and as the sh.o.r.es of the Gulf of Carpentaria, previously surveyed by Captain Flinders, were pa.s.sed over by Captain King, Mr. Brown, who accompanied the former, has been so good as to allow the specimens collected by himself in that part of New Holland, to supply the chasm which would otherwise have existed in the series. Part of the west and north-western coast, examined by Captain King, having been previously visited by the French voyagers, under Captain Baudin, I was desirous of obtaining such information as could be derived from the specimens collected during that expedition, and now remaining at Paris; although I was aware that the premature death of the princ.i.p.al mineralogist, and other unfavourable circ.u.mstances, had probably diminished their value:*

But the collection from New Holland, at the school of Mines, with a list of which I have been favoured through the kindness of Mr. Brochant de Villiers, relates princ.i.p.ally to Van Diemen's Land; and that of the Jardin du Roi, which Mr. Constant Prevost has obliged me with an account of, does not afford the information I had hoped for. I have availed myself of the notices relating to Physical Geography and Geology, which are dispersed through the published accounts of Captain Flinders',** and Baudin's Voyages;*** and these, with the collections above alluded to, form, I believe, the only sources of information at present existing in Europe, respecting the geological structure and productions of the north and western coasts of Australia.

(*Footnote. M. Depuch, the mineralogist, died during the progress of the voyage, in 1803; and, unfortunately, none of his ma.n.u.scripts were preserved. M. Peron, the zoologist, after publis.h.i.+ng, in 1807, the first volume of the account of the expedition, died in 1810, before the appearance of the second volume. Voyage etc. 1 page 417, 418; and 2 page 163.)

(**Footnote. A Voyage to Terra Australis, etc., in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, by Matthew Flinders, Commander of the Investigator. Two volumes quarto with an atlas folio; London 1814.)

(***Footnote. Voyage de Decouverte aux Terres Australes etc. Tome 1 redige par M. F. Peron, naturaliste de l'Expedition, Paris 1807. Tome 2 redige par M. Peron et M. L. Freycinet 1816. A third volume of this work, under the t.i.tle of Navigation et Geographie, was published by Capt.

Freycinet in 1815. It contains a brief and clear account of the proceedings of the expedition; and affords some particulars connected with the physical geography of the places described, which are not to be found in the other volumes.)

In order to avoid the interruption which would be occasioned by detail, I shall prefix to the list of specimens in Captain King's and Mr. Brown's collections, a general sketch of the coast from whence they come, deduced, princ.i.p.ally, from the large charts,* and from the narratives of Captains Flinders and King, with a summary of the geological information derived from the specimens. But I have thought it necessary to subjoin a more detailed list of the specimens themselves; on account of the great distance from each other of many of the places where they were found, and of the general interest attached to the productions of a country so very remote, of which the greater part is not likely to be often visited by geologists. The situation of such of the places mentioned, as are not to be found in the reduced chart annexed to the present publication, will be sufficiently indicated by the names of the adjacent places.

(*Footnote. These charts have been published by the Admiralty for general sale.)

GENERAL SKETCH OF THE COAST.

The North-eastern coast of New South Wales, from the lat.i.tude of about 28 degrees, has a direction from south-east to north-west; and ranges of mountains are visible from the sea, with little interruption, as far north as Cape Weymouth, between the lat.i.tude of 12 and 13 degrees. From within Cape Palmerston, west of the Northumberland Islands, near the point where Captain King began his surveys, a high and rocky range, of very irregular outline, and apparently composed of primitive rocks, is continued for more than one hundred and fifty miles, without any break; and after a remarkable opening, about the lat.i.tude of 21 degrees, is again resumed. Several of the summits, visible from the sea, in the front of this range, are of considerable elevation: Mount Dryander, on the promontory which terminates in Cape Gloucester, being more than four thousand five hundred feet high. Mount Eliot, with a peaked summit, a little to the south of Cape Cleveland, is visible at twenty-five leagues distance; and Mount Hinchinbrook, immediately upon the sh.o.r.e, south of Rockingham Bay, is more than two thousand feet high. From the south of Cape Grafton to Cape Tribulation, precipitous hills, bordered by low land, form the coast; but the latter Cape itself consists of a lofty group, with several peaks, the highest of which is visible from the sea at twenty leagues. The heights from thence towards the north decline gradually, as the mountainous ranges approach the sh.o.r.e, which they join at Cape Weymouth, about lat.i.tude 12 degrees; and from that point northward, to Cape York, the land in general is comparatively low, nor do any detached points of considerable elevation appear there. But about midway between Cape Grenville and Cape York, on the mainland south-west of Cairncross Island, a flat summit called Pudding-Pan Hill is conspicuous; and its shape, which differs from that of the hills on the east coast in general, remarkably resembles that of the mountains of the north and west coasts, to which names expressing their form have been applied.*

(*Footnote. Jane's Table-Land, south-east of Princess Charlotte's Bay (about lat.i.tude 14 degrees 30 minutes) and Mount Adolphus, in one of the islands (about lat.i.tude 10 degrees 40 minutes) off Cape York, have also flat summits. King ma.n.u.scripts.)

The line of the coast above described retires at a point which corresponds with the decline of its level; and immediately on the north of Cape Melville is thrown back to the west; so that the high land about that Cape stands out like a shoulder, more than forty miles beyond the coastline between Princess Charlotte's Bay and the north-eastern point of Australia.

The land near Cape York is not more than four or five hundred feet high, and the islands off that point are nearly of the same elevation.