174 BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMATICS 



family, some such as lycorine, have been found in all twenty-six of the 

 genera of Amaryllidoideae which have been examined to date (Wild- 

 man, 1960). Pax and Hoffmann (1930), in their treatment of the 

 Amaryllidaceae, recognized four sub-families: Agavoideae, Hypoxidoid- 

 eae, Campynematoideae, and Amarylhdoideae. Most workers have 

 treated the family similarly, but Hutchinson (1959) excluded all the 

 sub-families, other than the Amaryllidoideae, and simultaneously trans- 

 ferred three tribes of the classically constituted Liliaceae to the 

 Amaryllidaceae [including the tribe Alheae, which contains the genus 

 Allium (onion)]. It is interesting to note that Hutchinson's treatment, 

 except for the transfer of the three Liliaceous tribes (Agapantheae, 

 Allieae, and Gilliesieae), would be compatible with the alkaloid data. 

 However, alkaloids of the Amaryllidaceous type, while found in 

 nearly all of the tribes of the Amaryllidoideae as classically con- 

 stituted, are not found in the three transferred tribes, and therefore 

 the family, as reconstituted by Hutchinson, is perhaps as anomalous 

 from the standpoint of alkaloids as by the treatment of Pax and 

 Hoffmann. 



Unrelated alkaloids, of the colchicine type, have been found 

 in five genera of three tribes of the Liliaceae. Two of the tribes 

 (Colchiceae and Iphigenieae) appear to be fairly closely related, but 

 the third (Uvularieae) is somewhat more distant. However, the 

 Lihaceae is a large and varied family, and as indicated by Hutchinson 

 (1959) it is still somewhat artificially classified, even with the removal 

 of several of its more distinct elements. A more inclusive biochemical- 

 morphological study might yield a better phylogenetic arrangement 

 than exists at present. Correlations between the comparative chem- 

 istry of the alkaloids and that of other chemical groups (for example, 

 the substituted glutamic acids. Chapter 6 and the saponins. Chapter 

 13) in the families Lihaceae and Amarylhdaceae should be informative. 



Hegnauer (1958) considers that the occurrence of the Senecio 

 alkaloids outside the family Compositae, in one instance in the 

 Boraginaceae and in another the Leguminosae, is of phylogenetic 

 significance. He notes the presence of inulin in both the Boraginaceae 

 and Compositae and the flavonoid chalkone in both the Compositae 

 and Leguminosae and concludes that, 



. . . the extensive structural resemblances of the Crotalaria, Borago 

 and Senecio alkaloids is altogether not understandable if no genetic 

 connection can be recognized between the families, and the alkaloids 

 are metabolic wastes. 



Perhaps this is true, but parallel evolution, at least in the Legumino- 

 sae, seems to be the more likely explanation. 



