IIG 



s. MATSUDA. 



I examined all the species of Magnoliacete that were aece.ssiljle, 

 including those placed in other families by some botanists. Sucli being 

 the case [ find it more convenient to use in my dissertation the term 

 Magnoliaceœ in its wider sense. It also best answers my ])urpose to 

 divide this family, as is done by liUerssen' and others, into four tribes ; 

 namely : — 



Maguoliece, Scli izaiidrea', 



Jlliciea', TrocJi odciulreœ. 



The number of genera included in these tribes does not exceed 

 fourteen, orj the highest estimation, and that of the sjiecies known at 

 present ranges Ijetween seventy and eight}'. However, I could ex- 

 amine only twenty-four species and two varieties. Altlunigh the 

 number of the species examined is small when compared with that of 

 all the species known, yet those examined are distributed among ten 

 genera, which are in their turn distril3uted among the fjur tribes. 

 Therefore, I am perhaps right in believing that the anatomical 

 characters of the species I examined represent fiirly those of the 

 whole family. 



With the exception of two dried specimens in the herbarium of 

 the Science College, which I wa-< allowed to examine, the materials for 

 my study were mostly obtained in the University lîotanic Garden in 

 Koishikawa. As I could get no specimens of the main root proceed- 

 ing immediately from the seedling, but only of younger sec(jndary 

 roots, I examined these branchlets in order to get some kn(n\ledge of 

 the anatomical characters of the young root, such as the arrangement 

 of the xylem-plates, &c. 



It will be well, I think, to define at once a few words which 

 thouiih often convenient to use in describinn- the structure of the 

 plant-body, are yet somewhat vague in their meaning. " Sclerenchy- 



1. Luerssen, Grundzüge der Botanik. 



