On Whorled Phyllotaxis. 



I 



Growth Whorls 



By 

 J. C. Schoute. 



1. Introduction. Besides my „Beitrâge zur Blattstellungs- 

 lehre" which appear in this same periodicaP, I Intend to publish 

 a separate séries of papers on whorled phyllotaxis. 



The aim of my researches will be a double one. In the first place 

 they are a necessary complément of the gênerai studies in phyllo- 

 taxis. As I pointed out beforehand" the wide-spread occurrence 

 of whorls in flowers and in other parts of plants is not to be ex- 

 plained by any theory of phyllotaxis given as yet. In the second 

 place we shall never get a right insight into the morphology of 

 the flower, which is still the base of systematic botany, unless we 

 get a clear idea of the relations between spiral and whorled arrange- 

 ments in the flower It is nownearly acentury agothat von Martius 

 enounced the opinion^ that ail floral whorls were in reality spirals. 

 This view bas smce been shared by nearly ail the leading mor- 

 phologists^ ; and indeed the common case of a ^/s calyx is a very 

 convincmg argument. 



Nevertheless nothmg is known of the way in which spirals are 

 transformed into whorls, and it is indeed very difficult to under- 

 stand this phenomenon. 



^ I, Die Théorie, vol. X 1913, p. 153: II, Uber verâstelte Baumfarne etc., vol. 

 XI. 1914, p. 95. 



2 l.c. 1913. p. 319. 



3 von Martius, Ober die Architektonik der Blumen, Isis 1829. p. 335. 



* cf. e. g. L. J. Celakovsky. Uber den phylogenetischen Entwickelungsgang 

 der Blùthe und iiber den Ursprung der Blumenkrone II Sitz.-Ber. bôhm. Ges. d. 

 Wiss. Math. Nat. Cl. 1900 III; J. Velenovsky, Vergleichende Morphologie der 

 Pflanzen, Prag 1905-1910, III p. 846. 



