,907] MONOCOTYLEDONS AND THE DICOTYLEDONS. 317 



Referring to the chart illustrating the taxonomy of the mono- 

 cotyledons, the families may be divided roughly into two groups, 

 the aquatic and terrestrial. Such aquatic orders as Naiadacese, 

 Typhacese, Sparganiaceae, Potamogetonacese and Aponogetonaceae 

 are according to the views of the writer undoubtedly primitive. 

 The remarkable male flower of Naias in having a terminal stamen, 

 which has either four longitudinal loculi, or one central one, and 

 the female flower with unilocular gynoecium and single erect ovule 

 with pollination under water are no doubt primitive characters. 

 The Butomacese and Alismacese, as families of the order Helobiales, 

 relate themselves according to some authors with some of the Ran- 

 ales. And if the Ranales are not highly evolved in structure, having 

 apopetaly and apocarpy, then the Helobic families are comparatively 

 simple for the same reasons. 



The families in which the parts of the flowers are surrounded 

 by chaffy scales, namely the Cyperacese and the Graminacese, are 

 probably not as closely related as was formerly supposed. Some 

 botanists consider that the grass family is to be ranked as a primi- 

 tive order and not a degraded liliaceous type through the Juncacese. 

 This view the author believes is the correct one, and he has, there- 

 fore, removed the Juncaceae from nearness to the Cyperaceae and 

 placed it as a more primitive form of Liliales with dry, scarious 

 perianth segments. The families with petaloid perianth segments 

 the author has placed on two separate limbs of the family tree. On 

 one limb will be found the families in which the ovary is superior 

 and on the other those families in which the ovary is inferior. Smila- 

 ceae represent the most modified liliaceous type and Juncaceae the 

 least modified. The Bromeliaceae, Marantaceae, Amaryllidaceas, 

 Orchidaceae and Iridaceae, include the most modified types of plants 

 with inferior ovary and are indicated by as many distinct branches 

 of the family tree. Thus from Burmanniaceae one proceeds to the 

 Orchidaceae through Apostasiae and Cypripediae. The family Dios- 

 coreaceae includes plants the flowers of which are dioecious forms 

 of amaryllidaceous flowers. Beginning with IMusaceae the series 

 passes through Zingiberaceae and Cannaceae to the Marantaceae, and 

 the botanist finds a strongly marked parallelism of development, the 

 most marked tendency being the petaloid development of the sta- 



