1. The Comparative Anatomy and Phylogent op the Coniferales. 



Part 2. — The Abietineae. 1 



By Edward C. Jeffrey. 



(Kead November 2, 1!)04.) 



Introduction. 



In the first number of this series the writer (:03) has called attention to 

 certain features of the anatomy of the genus Sequoia, which seemed to indicate for 

 that genus an Abietineous origin. The results obtained in the case of Sequoia made 

 it desirable that the Abietiueae should be somewhat fully examined as a preliminary 

 to the study of the other orders of the Coniferales. This procedure seems further 

 advantageous, because the Abietiueae are perhaps the most clearly defined and most 

 accessible of existing Coniferous orders and are at the same time a geologically very 

 ancient group. 



The importance attachable to the anatomy of the Gymnosperms has recently 

 been greatly increased by the discovery of the seeds of certain of the Cycadofilices. 

 This alliance established by Potonie ('99, p. 160) on the basis of the morphology 

 and anatomy of the vegetative organs alone, no longer ago than 1899, has recently 

 received the fullest confirmation from the epoch-making discoveries of Oliver and 

 Scott (:03) and Kidston (:03) , which, as has been stated by Zeiller (:04), are des- 

 tined to make a revolution in our conception of the nature of the Palaeozoic flora. 

 By these discoveries, especially when taken together with older, similar ones in the 

 case of the Calamites and Sigillarians, the taxonomic value of the anatomy of plants 

 is placed at once on as secure a footing as that of animals since the time of Cuvier. 

 The study of anatomy, which is so essential and which has recently yielded such impor- 

 tant results in the case of fossil plants, has been much neglected in those now living, 

 largely on account of the absence of proper perspective, which can alone be supplied 

 by the knowledge of the older forms. In the case of the Angiosperms this per- 

 spective is still unfortunately lacking by reason of our entire ignorance of the 

 nature and structure of their ancestry ; but for the Gymnosperms the anatomical 

 researches of the British, French, and German palaeobotanists have now reached a 



1 Harvard Botanical Memoirs. — No. 8. 



