1897 | PHYLOGENY AND TAXONOMY OF THE ANGIOSPERMS 167 
forming a single syncarpium, the so-called ‘compound pistil” 
of descriptive botany. Many syncarpia still preserve some of 
their parts free from one another; thus in the saxifrages, most 
pinks, and some lilies, the carpels are united for only a part of 
their length, the terminal portions (styles) being free, while in 
myrtles (Myrtacez), primroses (Primulacez), and spiderworts 
(Commelinacee) they are fully united from end to end. All 
apocarpia are free from the other organs of the flower, and this 
is the case with many syncarpia. There are, however, many 
syncarpia to which some or all of the other leaves of the repro- 
ductive strobilus have become more or less completely attached. 
In the so-called epigynous flowers, as the irids and orchids 
among the monocotyledons, and the myrtles, cactuses, umbel- 
worts, and all of the Infere of the dicotyledons, there has been 
such a fusion of the originally separate parts of the strobilus as 
to result in a single compact structure in which in extreme cases 
only the distal portions of the original leaves are distinguishable. 
The primitive syncarpia of the monocotyledons appear to 
have contained three carpels, as in lilies, and those in dicotyle- 
dons five or more, as in pinks and mallows. In the fusion of 
the parts of the strobilus some of these are usually suppressed. 
As a result we find that in case of the greatest fusion the syn- 
carpium contains fewer than the normal number of carpels, as 
for example, in the Asterales of the dicotyledons, where there 
are but two carpels remaining, and these so reduced as to func- 
tion as but one. The genetic line which includes pinks (Cary- 
ophyllales), primroses (Primulales), phloxes (Polemoniales), 
figworts (Personales), and mints (Lamiales) illustrates this ten- 
dency to a reduction in the number of parts with increased 
fusion of the strobilar leaves. The same law is illustrated in the 
genetic line which includes the lilies (Coronariez), pipeworts 
(Eriocaulacex), sedges (Cyperacez), the lower grasses (Bam- 
busex), and higher grasses (Agrostidee and Panicex); or 
possibly still better in the line from lilies to amaryllids (Amaryl- 
lidacez), irises (Iridacez), burmannias (Burmanniacez), and 
orchids (Orchidacez). 
