THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



apparatus for transferring the reserve starch of the perisperm to the 

 embryo. He suggests that in several genera of Cannaceae, Poly- 

 gonaceas, Phytolaccaoceae, Caryophyllaceae, and others, a thin layer 

 of endosperm separating perisperm and embryo may serve the same 

 function. J. A. Harris. 



The Origin of Monocotyledons. — The importance of a study of 

 the seedling stages of plants in classification is being much empha- 

 sized of late. In a recent number of this Journal, Professor Campbell 

 {Am. Nat., Vol. XXXVI, pp. 7-12, January, 1902) touches on this 

 question. In a more recent number (Am. Nat, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 

 981-982, December, 1902) was reviewed the preliminary paper of 

 Miss Sargent in which she announced a theory of the origin of the 

 Monocotyledons from a dicotyledonous type. In the following 

 number of the New Phylologist, (Vol. I, pp. 131-133, June, 1902) 

 Tansley commends very highly in some ways the paper by Miss 

 Sargent, but calls attention to the freedom with which the hypothesis 



nowadays used in morphological work, and to the danger of the too 

 free use of this hypothesis in biological speculations, unless the 



since there seems to be no reason for believing that there is any 

 general cause leading to reduction as compared with the primary 

 tendency to increase in bulk and complexity of structure. He thinks 

 that, while of the greatest interest in many ways, the generalized 

 conclusions of Miss Sargent's paper should not be accepted without 

 careful consideration. 



In the current number of the Annals of Botany^ Miss Sargent 1 

 presents in greater detail the theory recently announced, though she 

 states that the evidence she has accumulated will not be published in 

 detail until her monograph on the comparative anatomy of seedlings 

 of the Liliaceae is completed. In the opening pages she discusses 

 the nature of the evidence employed in formulating her theory. 

 This is followed by observations on the anatomy of seedlings, 

 occupying nearly sixty pages, and considering the tribes Scilleae, 

 Tulipeae, Asphodeleae. Allies, Dracaenea, Asparagea; and Aloi- 

 neai of the Liliaceae, to which her work has been principally con- 

 fined, with fewer examples from the Amaryllidacea.-, Iridaceaej 



Structure of their Seedlings, Ann. of Bat., Vol. xvii, pp. 1-92, PI. I-VII, Jan- 

 uary, 1903. 



