CLASSIFICATION OF VASCULAR PLANTS 69 



taxonomic significance of their invaluable contributions to our 

 knowledge. 



In summary it would seem that we have the systematic group 

 or order Coniferales, containing one family, Coniferae, according 

 to Eichler and Jeffrey; or two families, Pinaceae and Taxaceae,' 

 according to Coulter and Chamberlain, and Engler's Syllabus; 

 or nine families according to Penhallow. Certain it is that the 

 Taxaceae are so distinct from the Pinaceae in many ways that 

 the difference is almost universally accepted as of family rank. 

 It will be most helpful so to consider it. It would seem wise 

 to separate also the kauris and their kin under the caption 

 Araucariaceae. This group is almost as aberrant as the yew 

 family, and much more homogeneous. It has been distinct 

 since the Jurassic or earlier, and has evolved along its own lines 

 independent of the other two families but parallel with them. 



The terminology of the subdivisions of Pinaceae should be 

 corrected in the interest of the general student and in harmony 

 with international usage. Thus the rich library of fact and 

 thought included In the books above quoted, may the sooner 

 be disseminated into the most widely used texts, and become 

 the common possession of botanists everywhere. No hindrance 

 should stand in the way of this desired end. 



There remains a question as to whether Jeffrey's division of 

 Archigymnospermae and Metagymnospermae is the most help- 

 ful that could be devised at that point. From the standpoint 

 of seed structure, fertilization, and cryptogamic wood this dis- 

 tinction is of first importance. But it throws a strong division 

 between the Ginkgoales and Coniferales, which, on the basis of 

 stem anatomy, are very near of kin. It may ultimately prove 

 more helpful to distinguish between the Cycadean phylum with 

 its pithy stems and broad rays, iand the Cordaitean phylum with 

 its small pith and primitively uniseriate rays. 



The slight modifications suggested above in the terminology 

 used by morphologists, and in the expression of family relation- 

 ship as used by systematists can easily be slipped into the existing 

 texts by intelligent readers and teachers. To the beginner, the 

 new classification is just as acceptable as the old. The beginner 



