286 END OF THE PRESIDENTIAL TERM 



and in my view are not worth the time they take to 

 elucidate ? 1 



What I wish now to consult you about is the position of 

 Gymnosperms, whether to make of them a sub-class of 

 Dicotyledons, or a group equal to all other Phaenogams : 

 i.e. should it be 



1. Monocots." 



2. Dicots. 



a. Angiosp. 

 6. Gymnosp. 

 or Phanerogams : 



1. Angiosperms. 



Monocot. 

 Dicot. 



2. Gymnosperms. 



I see that you and Decaisne, and I (in Decaisne and Maout) 

 have adopted the first course, and I still incline to it. Oliver 

 is disposed to go in for the second with Dyer. No one could 

 weigh the evidence on both sides so well as you could. Much 

 should depend on the structure of Gnetum embryo, sacs, &c., 

 and I think Gnetum is quite overlooked by the Physiologues 

 in removing Gymnosperms from Dicots. 



I have just sent to Press the corrected Primer, 2 a work 

 which has cost me immense labor. I feel terribly the want 

 of that facility for writing such a book as lecturing would 

 have given me. 



1 Writing to Mr. Bolus on November 20, 1883, he calls the accurate deter- 

 mination of them 'a most fidgetty affair, and most unsatisfactory.' To com- 

 plete the new edition it was further necessary to collate the ' new edition ' of 

 Nyman (presumably the Conspectus Florae Europaeae, 1878-82, the Sylloge 

 Florae Europaeae having appeared in 1854-5), to rearrange many Orders by the 

 Gen. Plant., and revise distribution by the last edition of Watson's Topographical 

 Botany. 



* I.e. the third 10,000. 



