400 
to the Celastrales in which epigyny is some- 
times attained, thence to the Umbellales, 
where epigyny is constant, and to the Ru- 
biales in which gamopetaly has become a 
fixed character, culminating in the group 
of the Asterales with its greatly reduced 
bicarpellary synearpium. 
Early predominance of aphanisis in 
some members of the Ranale phylum 
soon gave rise to the apetalous laurels 
and nutmegs from the buttercup type. 
A somewhat later appearance of aphani- 
sis gave rise to the willows, amaranths 
and buckwheat from the pink type, and 
the spurgeworts and nettleworts from the 
mallow type. Similarly, early predom- 
inance of aphanisis in the Rosale phylum 
gave rise to the apetalous plane-trees from 
the rosewort type, while its later appear- 
ance gave rise to the proteads, daphnads, 
oleasters, sandalworts and loranths from 
the holly type, and the walnuts, oaks and 
galeworts from the horsechestnut type. 
Early predominance of symphysis gave 
rise to the peculiar group of the myrtles 
from the rosewort type, in which by later 
aphanisis came the hippurids, birthworts 
and vine-rapes. The Parietales and Poly- 
galales are later developments more or less 
parallel to the Caryophyllales, while the 
Geraniales and Guttiferales stand in a sim- 
ilar relation to the Malvales. 
TAXONOMY OF ANGIOSPERMS. 
Asaresult of the investigation of phy- 
logeny along the lines of paleontology, em- 
bryology and morphology, the following 
suggestions as to the classification of angi- 
osperms are made : 
The angiosperms are separable into two 
diverging sub-classes, the monocotyledons 
(Monocotyledoneze) and the dicotyledons 
(Dicotyledoneze), the first ranking struc- 
turally lower than the second. The mono- 
cotyledons are well divided by Bentham 
and Hooker into seven series, and these we 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 141. 
may accept unchanged with the single ex- 
ception that the waterworts (Hydrochari- 
taceze) should probably be removed from the 
Microspermee, to constitute an additional 
coordinate group. These eight groups, 
which appear to be deserving of no more 
than ordinal rank, should then be re-ar- 
ranged so as to have the following sequence, 
namely : Apocarpee, Coronariez, Nudiflore, 
Calycinze, Glumacez, Hydrales, Epigyne, 
Microspermee. Here it must be understood 
that the Nudiflore, Calycine and Gluma- 
cee are separate orders radiating from the 
present order Coronariez, and that the Hy- 
drales constitute a diverging order from the 
base of the Epigyne. 
The choripetalous and gamopetalous di- 
cotyledons are divided by Bentham and 
Hooker into six ‘series,’ one of which, the 
Discifloree, should be broken up and its 
families distributed elsewhere. The re- 
maining ‘series,’ which appear to have the 
rank of orders, form two somewhat diverg- 
ing genetic lines or phyla, each beginning 
with apocarpous, hypogynous, choripetalous 
plants, and both attaining syncarpy and 
gamopetaly, one remaining hypogynous, the 
other becoming epigynous. An attempt 
has been made to distribute all the apeta- 
lous plants, these having been assigned 
places in the lower two orders. Since gam- 
opetaly has evidently been attained at 
more than one point, it is no longer desira- 
ble to retain the Gamopetale as a distinct 
group. It must constantly be borne in 
mind that these orders and their sub-orders, 
as well as the families, are diversely related 
to one another, sometimes serially, but 
more commonly divergently, as the twigs 
of a tree are related, now by direct exten- 
sion, and then by lateral branching. 
Class ANGIOSPERM A. 
Sub-class MoNocoTYLEDONES. 
Order Apocarpze (3 families). 
Order Coronariez (8 families). 
Order Nudifloree (5 families). 
