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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 733 



the buttercups (Banales), water plantains 

 (Alismales) , and roses {Rosales) are to be 

 regarded as primitive, and as a consequence 

 tbey must stand at the beginning of the 

 great phylum Anthophyta, as also each 

 must stand at the beginning of its smaller 

 phylum. That the phylum beginning with 

 the water plantains (Alismales) must find 

 its highest development in the irises {Ind- 

 oles) and orchids (Orchidales) can not be 

 doubted; nor can it be questioned that 

 grasses (Graminales) , calla lilies (Aroid- 

 ales) and palms (Palmales) must now 

 stand as reduced from the type of the lilies 

 (Liliales). This leaves no room for radical 

 differences of opinion, and in fact little 

 room for any but the most minor differ- 

 ences in regard to the proper sequence of 

 the monocotyledonous families. 



In like manner beginning with the Ea- 

 nalian type in the dicotyledons, it is obvious 

 that one phyletic line culminates in the 

 gamopetalous, bicarpellate, hypogynous 

 order of the mints (Lamiales), while an- 

 other passes through the roses {Rosales) 

 (if indeed they are not themselves primi- 

 tive), and umbelworts (Umhellales) to the 

 sunflowers (Asterales). Here again, with 

 regard to the details as to the intermediate 

 orders there may be much difference of 

 opinion. Yet there will be no question that 

 in one line the pinks (Caryophyllales) and 

 mallows (Malvales) are lower than prim- 

 roses (Primulales) and heaths (Ericales), 

 nor that the latter are lower than phloxes 

 (Polemoniales) and mints (Lamiales). In 

 the other line the myrtles (Myrtales) are 

 clearly lower than umbelworts (Umhell- 

 ales), while the latter are manifestly lower 

 than madders (Bubiales), and these than 

 sunflowers (Aster ales). In fact when we 

 agree to the hypothesis that polypetalous, 

 hypogynous, apocarpous flowers are primi- 

 tive the great outlines of the phylum (or 

 phyla) are quite obvious, and the only ques- 



tionable points are with reference to the 

 place and sequence of intermediate orders. 

 And it is here that much critical work in- 

 vites the close attention of taxonomists. 

 The great outlines— the boundaries of the 

 phyla— are drawn, but the particular man- 

 ner in which many of the interior families 

 are related to each other has not yet been 

 made out. 



The principles here brought forward, and 

 the general plan which I have so hastily 

 sketched, have been so serviceable in the 

 presentation of the subject of taxonomy 

 in my lectures to university students that 

 I venture to lay them before you as a gen- 

 eral working hypothesis. My own success 

 in its use encourages me in the hope that 

 in the hands of others it may be equally 

 helpful in enabling the student of taxonomy 

 to more clearly apprehend the mode of 

 evolution in the vegetable kingdom, and 

 the consequent relationship of the result- 

 ing multiplicity of types. 



Charles E. Bessey 

 Thk Univeesitt of Nebraska 



TEE DARWIN CENTENARY AT CAMBRIDGE 

 Some details are given in the London 

 Times of the celebration by the University of 

 Cambridge of the centenary of the birth of 

 Charles Darwin and the jubilee of the first 

 publication of " The Origin of Species." It 

 is expected that delegates selected by univer- 

 sities, academies, colleges and learned so- 

 cieties will arrive in Cambridge on Tuesday, 

 June 22, and that the arrangements for their 

 entertainment, which are, however, subject to 

 alteration, will be as follows: On the evening 

 of the twenty-second there will be a reception, 

 probably in the Fitzwilliam Museum, by the 

 chancellor. On Wednesday, June 23, ad- 

 dresses will be presented by the delegates to 

 the university in the senate house. It is 

 hoped to present to each delegate a copy of 

 the first draft of " The Origin of Species." 

 In the afternoon there will be a garden party 

 at Christ's College, where Darwin was a stu- 



