22 SCIENTIFIC WOBK, 1860-1865 



orders, seemed to support the theories as to the primitive type 

 of Angiosperms advanced by Dr. Arber and Mr. Parkin in 

 1907. 1 



Dr. Arber accordingly wrote to enquire if the sequence of 

 orders and families adopted, to give a simple example, in the 

 ' British Flora ' of Bentham and Hooker, was in accordance 

 with some scheme of beginning with the most primitive. What 

 precisely was the principle involved ? The reply was as 

 follows : 



To Dr. E. Newell Arber 2 



14 South Parade : May 13, 1907. 



With regard to your queries respecting the primitive 

 type of Angiospermous ' plants,' that subject has never 

 been far from my mind for upwards of half a century, during 

 which period I have failed to grasp a feature in the Mor- 

 phology, Physiology or Geographical distribution of Angio- 

 sperms, that gave much color to whatever speculations I 

 may have indulged in respecting it. 



I do not share Engler's views as expressed in his classifi- 

 cation and writings. The classification is neither better 

 nor worse in the abstract than De Candolle's (so-called), 

 and is far more troublesome to apply for practical purposes. 

 I hold to Kobert Brown's view of the orders being reticu- 

 lately not lineally related. 



The Cohorts of the Genera Plantarum were the result of 

 long study and anxious deliberation on Mr. Bentham's 

 and my part ; they are in a measure compromises, intended 

 to show the relationship of the orders and at the same time 

 enable users of the work to recognise them (and the plants 

 belonging to them) by our descriptions. 



You ask why ' in the British Flora of Mr. Bentham and 

 myself I begin Dicots with Eanunculaceae ' ! Premising 

 that I had no part in the authorship of the work, I can 

 only assume that Mr. Bentham, having regard to the object 

 of the work which he sedulously puts forward, adopted what 



1 ' On the Origin of Angiosperms,' read at the Linnean Society in March, 

 and published in the July Proceedings. 



2 Edward Alexander NeweU Arber (b. 1870), M.A., Sc.D. Cantab., F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., Hon. Member of the New Zealand Institute ; University Demonstrator 

 in Palseobotany, Trinity College, Cambridge. 



