95 



which have to be looked up there seem to me not to be 

 primary characters but to be reduction caused by the parasitic 

 lives of these different plants. The fact that such reductions 

 occur also among terrestrial plants f. i. among the Nuytsiaceae, 

 does not prove that they are not caused by parasitic life for if 

 the Nuytsiaceae are not parasitic on the roots of other plants, 

 which is not sure , they may yet he descendants of parasites having 

 become independant again. This view is by no means phantastical 

 in as much as Mr. v. Tieghem states himself that among the 

 Loranthineae , some f. i. several species of the genus Neophyl- 

 lum occur now as parasites on the truncs of trees then again in- 

 dependently on the ground. 



It seems to me that as all phanerogames which are inovulate 

 (with the exception of these few) are parasites it is more 

 probable to consider these few to be „ reformed parasites" than 

 to ignore that these reductions are caused by parasitic life. 



It seems to me that v. Tieghem has overlooked this possi- 

 bility of parasites returning to an independant life where 

 he says: 



Si^ done toutes les Loranthinees parasites possMent dans leur 

 organisation quelques caracteres remarquables , et si en meme 

 temps ces caracteres sont partages au meme degre par toutes 

 les Loranthinees non parasites, il ne sera plus permis de les 

 attribuer, comme On Fa fait jusque dans ces derniers temps, 

 ^ Finfluence de parasitisme, on devra les considerer comme 

 autant de caracteres generaux hereditaires appartenant k ce 

 groupe en tant que groupe et tout ^ fait independant du 

 mode de nutrition. 



Systematic conclusions. 



The following part contains the conclusions Dr. Th. Valeton 

 and I come to after a careful consideration of the facts thus 

 far known; I am much indebted to my friend Valeton for 

 his kind collaboration. 



