436 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



or no capacity for dormancy in noncapsular (Bews) or follicular or capsular 

 (Corner) fruits to be primitive in tropical and subtropical environments. Poly- 

 spermous fruits were believed by Robertson and Gunderson to be related to ani- 

 mal dissemination, while those with only one or a few ovules bespoke anemoph- 

 ily; Neumayer and Janchen, of course, believed the latter condition to be 

 primitive. Salisbury (1942) found a correlation of the weight of fruit or seed 

 with the degree of shading to which the seedling would normally be subjected. 

 He found also that, at least in the British flora, the greatest seed output charac- 

 terizes opportunistic ruderal plants, the lowest to be associated with shade- 

 loving herbs. A relationship between the possession of fleshy fruits and a woody 

 or herbaceous-climbing habit, and between dry fruits and herbaceous-terrestrial 

 habit was postulated by Sinnott and Bailey (1915a) ; this was questioned by Ban- 

 croft (1930). Porsch (1931) called attention to scarlet as the color most likely 

 to attract animals, an idea which Corner exploited. Both Odell and Elias (1946) 

 have emphasized the importance of fossil fruits and seeds as more decisive than 

 leaves and more abundant than preserved flowers. 



A. Fruits: Baumann (1946) has recently stressed the development of a dry 

 schizocarpous fruit from a baccate one in Myodocarpus to explain the derivation 

 of Umbelliferae from Araliaceae. Although the generally accepted close affinity 

 of the two families has recently been abundantly confirmed on anatomical evi- 

 dence (Rodriguez, 1953), it is difficult for me to believe that an implied deriva- 

 tion of Trachymene from Myodocarpus can explain the origin of the subfamilies 

 Apioideae and Saniculoideae of Umbelliferae. An interesting example of the 

 diversification of a single fruit-type, presumably under drastic environmental 

 selection, is given by Zohary's (1950) study of the fruiting head of Compositae. 

 In Ranunculaceae, Rassner attempted to show that the follicle is basic to all 

 other fruit types; the reduction of follicles to achenes was well established by 

 Chute (1930) in both Ranunculaceae and Rosaceae, on the basis of vasculation. 

 Stressing its loculicidally dehiscent capsular or baccate fruit, Edlin transferred 

 Hibisceae bodily from Malvaceae to Bombacaceae, a transfer opposed by C. V. 

 Rao (1952) on grounds of seed anatomy, cytology, and pollen morphology. Both 

 Edlin and Rao believed the multilocular schizocarpous fruits of Malva section 

 Malopeae to be derived by ''chorisis." A ''splash-cup" mechanism of seed dis- 

 persal, favoring the development of shallow, erect, open capsules in at least one 

 evolutionary line of Saxifragaceae, is postulated by Savile (1953). 



In an ingenious tour de force (perhaps parodying exclusively floral phylo- 

 genies?). Corner assumes as primitive for all modern flowering plants "the red, 

 fleshy, and often spiny follicle or capsule, with large black seeds covered by a 

 red or yellow aril and hanging from the edges of the fruit-valves" (1949, p. 

 376). From this initial supposition he concludes (p. 396) : 



The immediate ancestors of modern flowering plants must have been sparingly and sym- 

 podially branched, soft-wooded, tropical trees of low or medium height, with massive 

 twigs bearing spirally arranged compound leaves without distinct internodes, and repro- 

 duced by large arillate seeds borne on massive red follicles, succeeding terminal flowers 

 or inflorescences. The more remote ancestors appear to have been monocarpic and mono- 

 caulous, with the Cycad-habit. 



He points out that "the Amentiferae" represent an unnatural mixture of mega- 



