CLASSIFICATION. 



ages of Monocotyledons and DicotyledonB. Rendle in his 

 ClassiBeation of Flowering Plants begins with the CycacU, 

 Coniferae, and Gne&oese, and follows with the Monocoty- 

 ledons: The order of the two last groups adopted here is 

 that of the Genera Plmtarum, the Dicotyledonous phylum 

 being considered on the whole as more ancient than that 

 of the Monocotyledons, l which are probably a side branch of 

 the main Anglospernic trunk. The arrangement adopted in 

 this flora, then, is Ferns, Gymnospetms, Dicotyledons, Mono- 

 cotyledons. . The division of the Dicotyledons has been baaed 

 on the German system in respect to the two great divisions 

 of Choripetalse and Sympetalae, and in the distribution of the 

 Apetalee among the former ; but for reasons indicated above 

 the Choripetalae- start with the Ranales as in the Genera Plau- 

 tarum. To those already acquainted with Bentham and 

 Hooker's system, this arrangement will present little difficulty ; 

 most of them" will already be familiar with the German 

 system from their botanical studies, or from having used & 

 German flora in the 6eld. To those unfamiliar with systematic 

 botany, it is believed that the abolition of the Apetalous 

 class, as usually constituted, will be the removal of a stumbling 

 block, and save such often-repeated queries as to the reason 

 of Jatropha, etc., being included in the Apetalae and not 

 Casearia, etc., etc. They will, however, understand that in 

 no linear arrangement is it possible to commence with the 

 most primitive forms nor, while keeping obviously allied 

 forms and groups together, to steadily proceed from the older 

 and primitive to the younger and more highly evolved. 

 Some groups may show, on the one hand, old and primitive 

 types simultaneously with obviously allied but highly 



1 It will be recollected that the Monocotyledons show several points 

 of resemblance with some of the Polycarpicae or Ranales, and that Van 

 Tieghem placed the NymphsaaceaB between the Monococyledous and the 

 Dicotyledons. Benettites had two cotyledons, and several Dicotyledons 

 3oasioaally exhibit more than two, as is common among the Gyrahos- 



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