CLASSIFICATION. 



flowers in the above and similar cases is not a derived 

 character, snch flowers being due to suppression of parts 

 present in more complex ancestors. It is also pointed out 

 that these apparently simple flowers are usually combined 

 into very complex inflorescences. In demonstration of the 

 fact that some very primitive flowers were exceedingly 

 complex, may be quoted Scott's very fascinating account 1 

 of the flowers of the extinct Bennettiteae, which were 

 probably much nearer the direct line of descent of the 

 Angiosperms than the Conifers©. " The centre is occupied 

 by the gynaecium, seated on the convex receptacle, and 

 consisting of numerous long- stalked ovules, imbedded among 

 the interseminal scales. Surrounding this central body is 

 the hypogynous whorl of stamens, fused below to form a 

 tube, and expanding above into the pinnate sporophylls, 

 bearing very numerous compound pollen- sacs or synangia, 

 filled with pollen. The whole is surrounded by an envelope 

 of spirally arranged "bracts springing from the upper part of 

 •the peduncle. The general arrangement of parts is manifestly 

 just the same as in a typical angiospermous flower, with a 

 central pistil, hypogynous stamens, and a perianth. The re- 

 semblance is still further emphasised by xhe fact, long known, 

 that the interseminal scales are confluent ar their outer ends, 

 to form a kind of pericarp or ovary-wall. When to these 

 general features we add the practically exalbuminous charac- 

 ter of the seed, with its highly organised, dicotyledonous 

 embryo, the indications of affinity with the higher Flowering 

 Plants become extremely significant. The comparison was 

 drawn by Dr. Wieland in 1901, immediately on his discovery of 

 the hermaphrodite flower.***The flower with its great stamens, 

 10 cm. long in some species, must have been a striking object 

 when it opened. As, of course, we can know nothing of the 

 colouration of the perianth and other parts, we cannot tell how 

 brilliant its appearance may have been ; the bright tints of 



1 Presidential Address to the Eoyal Micro. Society, publiahed in the 

 Journal Boy. Micro. Soc, April 1907, p. 139. 



44 



