104 REPORT — 1877. 



Notes on Anticipatory Inheritance in Plants, especially with reference to the 



Embryology of Parasites. By GL S. Boulgeb, F.L.S. 

 The paper was designed to call attention to three groups of facts : first, facts 

 relating to the embryology of parasites, epiphytes, saprophytes, and carnivorous 

 plants. These were shown to agree in having fleshy perisperm, and mostly to have 

 reduced cotyledons. The cotyledons are absent in some, but not all, leafless 

 parasites and saprophytes ; and the latter class of plants, on the whole, have the 

 most reduced type of embryo. Secondly, facts relating to the form of the young 

 and mature leaves in Tropccolum and Aucuba japonica, and in seedlings of the 

 latter species, which suggest that immature and seedling leaves indicate an ancestral 

 type now abandoned by the plants in favour of more recently acquired forms. 

 Thirdly, facts as resemblances of detail between the floral organs of certain plants 

 and their leaves, under which head especial reference was made to Sarracenia, 

 Hypericum, and Dionma. These three groups of facts are considered by the 

 author to exemplify the accumulated effect of a tendency, described by Mr. Darwin 

 as sometimes seen, viz. that at whatever period of life a peculiarity first appears, it 

 tends to reappear in the offspring at a somewhat earlier age (Origin of Species, 

 chap. i. p. 10, in Gth edition). For this accumulated effect the name " anticipatory 

 inheritance " is used. 



On the Structure of the Pitcher of Cephalotus. 

 By Prof. Dickson, M.D. 



Prof. Dickson exhibited a specimen of Poyonatum alpinum, with two capsules 

 included under one calyptra. 



On the Classification of the Vegetable Kingdom. By Prof. M'Nab. 

 The proposed classification is a modification of that of Sachs and Prantl, and 

 most closely follows that recently published by Luersseu. The vegetable kingdom 

 is divided into 4 subkingdoms, Thallophyta, Bryophyta, rteridophyta, and Pha- 

 nerogamia, each including certain classes, in all 12 in number. These 12 classes 

 are subdivided into orders, numbered from 1 to 82 in ascending series, the orders 

 being still further subdivided into families, corresponding to the natural orders 

 of British botanists. In each order a selected series of families was given, the 

 attention of the student being thus directed most prominently to the larger groups 

 instead of to the more specialized families. In the flowering plants the group of 

 the Apetalffi was abolished, as suggested by Luerssen, and the families distributed 

 among the Polypetalous orders. 



The Classification of Flovjering Plants considered PhytogeneiicaUy. 



By Prof. M'Nab. 



Haeckel's monophyletic pedigree of the vegetable kingdom, as given in his 

 'History of Creation,' vol. ii. (English edition), was discussed, and objections to 

 its conclusions urged. Thus in two cases the groups are known to occur earlier 

 thanHaeckel'stheory requires; in another case (Monochlamydeous Dicotyledons) the 

 plants do not appear until much later (in the Cretaceous instead of in the Triassic). 

 The geological distribution of the Dicotyledonous flowering plants, founded on 

 Schimper's ' Paleontologie Vegetale,' was then fully discussed. The general con- 

 clusion drawn was the following : — 1st. That the Gamopetalse are more recent 

 than the Choripetalce. 2nd. That the apetalous orders must be looked upon, not 

 as forming a separate group, but as being the lowest members of the subordinate 

 groups of the Choripetala3. 3rd. That the older representatives in the Chalk of 

 the larger group generally belong to families having variable characters, more 

 especially in regard to the number of the parts of the flower. Thus the oldest 



