490 ME. G. BEXTH/VM ON CLASSIFICATION AND 



On the Distribution of the Monocotyledonous Orders into Pri- 

 mary Groups, more especially in reference to the Australian 

 Flora, wjtj* 'notes on some points of Terminology. Bv George 



BENTHASf, F.E.S. 



[Bead Nov. 2, 1876.] 

 (Plates VII.-IX.) 



The Monocotyledonous Orders appear to be generally connected 

 with each other by a combination of characters at least as compli- 

 cated as is usually the case with Dicotyledons ; aud their distribu- 

 tion into subclasses or alliances distinguished by positive charac- 

 ters has not been very successful— although very different methods 

 have been proposed, according to the paramount importance at- 

 tached by the authors to one or another character. 



Lindley, in his « Vegetable Kingdom,' proposed the separation 

 as a distinct class, under the name of Dictyogens, of a few genera 

 remarkable for the reticulate venation of their leaves. But this 

 has been generally rejected, as dividing groups otherwise nearly 

 related, besides that the venation has been found to be excep- 

 tionally reticulate in a few genera belonging to very various 

 orders in which it is generally parallel ; and in a large number 

 of Monocotyledons the primary parallel nerves or veins are 

 really more or less connected by fine, rarely conspicuous trans- 

 verse veinlets. 



Elias Fries, in 1835, relied in the first instance on the perianth 

 as presenting the best primary characters, establishing four pri- 

 mary divisions, partly corresponding to those I should be in- 

 clined to adopt, but with some important exceptions, such as 

 placing the Cyperaceae in the Spadiciflorse and mistaking the 

 glumes of G-rainine® for perianths. 



Adolphe Brongniart, in 1843, published a very able attempt at 

 a rearrangement of both Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons with 

 a view to obviate some of the chief objections made to the Candol- 

 lean series. In this arrangement he adopted as a primary cha- 

 racter, in Monocotyledons as in perigynous Dicotyledons, the 

 nature of the albumen, whether farinaceous, non-farinaceous, or 

 deficient. Important as these distinctions are, they cannot be 

 taken as absolute ; for several genera of Aroideje, for instance, 

 have the exalbuminous embryo of Naiade® : Hemodorace® and 



