RANALES 395 



sent the attainment of tlie advanced dorsal position; possibly they retain 

 the dorsal position as ancestral, as they seem to retain the apparently 

 primitive ruminate endosperm, which the Magnoliaceae do not have. 

 The Magnoliaceae show stages in the attainment of the whorled perianth 

 from spirally arranged tepals — Liriodendron and some species of Mag- 

 nolia have a whorled corolla; the Annonaceae have a whorled perianth 

 throughout. 



EUPOMATIACEAE 



Eupomatia, the only genus in the Eupomatiaceae, consists of shrubs 

 and small trees of Australia and New Guinea with simple leaves and 

 large, Heshy, solitary flowers of unusual appearance (see frontispiece). 

 There are two species, E. laurina, with flowers terminal on short shoots, 

 and E. hennettii, with flowers terminal on long, leafy, woody stems 

 from tuberous roots. Taxonomically, the genus has been difficult to 

 place; it has been placed in the Magnoliaceae, Winteraceae, Himantan- 

 draceae, Annonaceae. Family rank is well supported by its morpho- 

 logical structure, which was long insufficiently known. 



Like other families in the Ranales, the Eupomatiaceae possess many 

 primitive characters, combined with distinctive specializations that set 

 it well apart in the order. Especially important are: an absence of a 

 perianth; a syncarpous gynoecium of spirally arranged carpels; vessels 

 of the most primitive type known in the angiosperms; a pseudoperianth 

 above the stamens; inverted vascular bundles in the stamens. 



Because published descriptions of this family are incomplete and, in 

 part, inaccurate, the following somewhat detailed description* is added. 



The flower is described as perigynous, with numerous stamens and 

 staminodes inserted on the rim of the enlarged, turbinate receptacle, 

 and with numerous free carpels "immersed in the receptacle, as in some 

 of the Nymphaeaceae." This description is inaccurate in regard to the 

 gynoecium, which is not apocarpous but syncarpous, with the carpels 

 enclosed by the rim of the hollow receptacle, not embedded in it (Figs. 

 72A and 142C, D ) . There is no true perianth. The flower bud is covered 

 by a "calyptra," morphologically a bract, a member of the phyllotactic 

 spiral below the flower (Figs. 143 and 144). The calyptra is attached 

 around the rim of the enlarged receptacle and encloses the bud com- 

 pletely. It is shed at anthesis (Fig. 143). 



The numerous stamens, more or less connate at the bases of the 

 staminodes above, are borne on the rim of the receptacle (Figs. 142B, 

 C). Above tlie stamens are many petaloid staminodes which form a 

 pseudoperianth (frontispiece) — a prominent part of the flower, because 



* The description is based, in part, on observations in the field and on laboratory 

 studies of living material made by Dr. A. T. Hotchkiss and the author. Dr. Hotchkiss 

 is continuing detailed studies of the genus. 



