66 PnOCEETIIXGS OF THE 



formerly ranked unioiip;st the Marsileaceiic on account of their 

 shape and reticidate venation. 



It is quite open to question wlietlier these Caytoniales had any 

 rehitionship to modern Angiosj)erms. They sliow that the Angio- 

 spernious type of gynoocium evolved at an early date, and that the 

 plants which achieved this advance si ill had chanicters of a gymno- 

 spermous type, especially as regards their seeds. 



Professor F. AV. Oliveii in(]uired what was the author's view 

 as to tiie closing of the carpels frnm the 0])en state. 



Dr. A. B. l^ENnLE contended that the paper consisted of two 

 subjects which were unconnected with each other: the origin of 

 Angiosperms and JJennettitales. Jle deprecated tiie designation 

 of the theory as the .Strobiliis theory ; that title would be equally 

 applicable to other theories. He also protested against the 

 attempt to derive the whole of the modern Angiosperms from the 

 Ranalian plexus. The modern German system had done good 

 service in indicating the atHnities of certain orders of Dicotyledons, 

 which had been separated from their allies by the French system, 

 develo])ed by Eentham and Hooker, on account of their apetalous 

 character. ]5ut there were groups, sucli as the Amentifene, which 

 might be regarded as descendants of older forms, contemporary 

 with, or earlier than, the immediate ancestors of the Kanales. 

 There were presumably many stages in the evolution of the modern 

 Angiosperms, and it seemed more in accordance with facts to 

 regard some of the modern apetalous groups as descendants from 

 one or other of these. 



Mr. Parkin briefly replied to the observations contributed by 

 the speakers. 



The Geographical Distribution of some Transvaal LeguminoscT. 

 By J. Burtt-Dayy, F.L.S. 



[Read 7th Juno, 102.^.] 



As far as available data enable us to show, the Leguminosae 

 form the largest family of Transvaal Spermatophyta, as regards 

 numbers of species, having about lUO species more than the Com- 

 positte, and comprising nearly 10 ])er cent, of the recorded species 

 of the flora. The subfamily Papilionaceie includes fifty-eight 

 genera and 428 species ; excluding tiie aliens, and the geinis 

 Imluiofcra which is not yet fully worked out, we have fifty genera 

 and ;525 species. Since the first Check-list of Transvaal Flowering 

 Plants was ])ublished in 1911, the number of recorded species of 

 Papilionacea) has been nearly doubled. A large number of the 

 genera have very few s])ecies, and there are few genera w'wh many 

 species, i. e., forty-flvt! species are distributed an)ong thirty genera, 

 while 188 occur in four genera. As a general rule, the genera with 

 few species have no endemics : the greatest number of endemics 

 occur in genera with tlie greatest number of species ; but some of 



