Floristik u. Systematik der Phanerogamen. — Palaeontologie. 557 



Organs are considered in the 6 th. section. The greater part of the flower 

 System usually makes its appearance after a copious production of leaves. 

 The author finds that in ten out of the twenty species there is a depar- 

 ture from the dioecious condition, which Thwaites and Trimen beüeved 

 to be characteristic of the Ceylon representatives of Z)/os/7_yr(3s, although 

 the sex appears to be very unstabie dioecious, monoecious, polygamous 

 and hermaphrodite conditions having been found. All these difJerent 

 types of flowers are discussed in detail, but the reader must be referred 

 to the original for this. In every species the male flower possesses many 

 perfect stamens^ either as an epipetalous ring or as a central hypogynous 

 group, and in many cases they exhibit fusion; the author points out that 

 „in the staminal whorl of the male flowers there are types of character 

 which are only met with in natural orders now widely separated". In 

 the female flowers the stamens nearly always occur as an epipetalous 

 series. The pistil in the male flowers of polygamous trees is represented 

 by a central, hairy, apiculate or flattened disc. A very useful feature is 

 a table showing the number and orientation of tha members of the sta- 

 minal whorls for each species, from which it appears that the greater the 

 departure from the dioecious condition, the more nearly do the male and 

 female staminal whorls agree. A number of interesting generalisations 

 on the exact ontogenetic relationships of these organs are made by the 

 author. The sexes in the species with dioecious, monoecious and poly- 

 gamous flowers and with monoecious flowers only can be derived from 

 a hermaphrodite type of flower having a relatively large number ol 

 stamens, but in the species with dioecious flowers only and those with 

 dioecious and polygamous flowers the relationships are more compli- 

 cated. The first part of the paper ends with remarks on affinity (sect. 7). 

 A good artificial key for the Ceylon species can be constructed on 

 characters, such as leaf, flowers^ seadlings; the most constant feature in 

 the genus is the structure of the secondary xylem. 



The second half of the paper contains very complete descriptions 

 of the Ceylon species oi Diospyros in the same order as in Trimen 's 

 Flora; for many of them the male and female flowers, timbers^ fruits, 

 seeds and seedlings are described for the first time from material ob- 

 tained in the Island. The paper concludes with a key for the determi- 

 nation of the species. The Ceylon species oi Diospyros, discussed and 

 described in the present paper are as follows: D. ovalifoHa R. Wight, 

 D. tnontana Roxb , D. Embryopteris Fers., D. Toposia Hamilt., D. Ebeniim 

 Koenig, D. priiriens Dalz., D. atteniiata Thw., D. acuta Thw., D. Garclneri 

 Thw., D. oocarpa Thw., D. quaesita Thw., D. sylvatica Roxb., D. Melan- 

 oxylon Roxb., D. hirsuta L. f., D. insignis Thw., D. oppositifolia Thw., 

 D. Thwaitesü Bedd., D. Moonü Thw., D. affinis Thw., D. crumenata Thw. 



F. E. Fritsch. 



Jeffrey, E. C, A Fossil Sequoia from the Sierra Nevada. 

 (Bot. Gaz. XXXVHL Nov. 1904. 321—332. [pl. XVIII and 

 XIX]). 



A somewhat remarkable species of Sequoia which the author 

 has named 6*. penhallowii, n. sp. characterized by the presence of 

 numerous thyloses in the resin passages, and in this respect 

 resembling S. burgessü\ by the occurence of numerous trau- 

 matic resin passages, both longitudinal and radial, and by the 

 occurrence of numerous crystallogenous cells marginal to the 

 medullary rays. The author finds in this species, additional 

 evidence in support of his theory that the Ciipressineae have 

 been derived from an Abietineous ancestry. D. P. Penhallow. 



