82 THE PLANT WORLD 



type and the forms which come above the ground, become green and 

 perform the function of foliage leaves during germination, as the most 

 modified type. According to this theory the single cotyledon would be 

 the original type and the Dicotyledons would be supposed to originate 

 from the Monocotyledons by a bifurcation of the cotyledon as has been 

 described in Nelumbium, instead of the Monocotyledons originating from 

 Dicotyledons through a lateral fusion of the two cotyledons into one as 

 Miss Sargant has considered. 



The problem is by no means solved, but a beginning has been made 

 which shows what an intensely interesting field of work is open. What 

 the ultimate conclusion will be only time and patient and careful work 

 will tell, but we may well believe that the conceptions which we have 

 till so recently held will be found far from satisfactory in the near future. 



From the standpoint of systematic botany the problem is plainly of 

 the greatest importance, for while the most of our species of plants may 

 have been collected and described, and monographed and revised, there 

 is still an immense field for taxonomic work in the determination of the 

 relationship of genera and families as well as of the higher groups. 



The Palm Collection at the New York 



Botanical Garden.* 



By Georgk V. Nash. 



Thk palms form a well-marked family, their nearest relative being a 

 small group of plants, the Cyclanthaceae, to which, in foliage and habit, 

 they bear a strong resemblance, but are separated by the more essential 

 characters of flowers and fruit. They are also related, and not very dis- 

 tantly, to the aroid family, to which our own jack-in -the-pulpit and skunk 

 cabbage belong. They are either nearly stemless, bearing their leaves 

 close to the ground ; or, as is most frequently the case, the stem is 

 developed into a trunk ; this is smooth, or sometimes armed with stout 

 spines ; in some it is over 100 feet long, in some creeping on the ground, 

 in other cases slender and vine-like and climbing over tall trees by means 

 of spiny leaf-stalks or special organs of a similar character ; but commonly 

 it is stiff and erect. 



The flowers individually are quite small, but, occurring as they usually 

 do in large masses, the inflorescence is often an object of much beauty. 

 The flowers are perfect, that is with the staminate and pistillate organs 



* Condensed from i'he Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. 



