Notes. 
487 
to go further than to indicate the possibility that we may require 
to revise our present ideas on the comparative morphology of the 
higher and lower groups of the vegetable kingdom. Even if we regard 
the reduction in the number of the chromosomes as a fact which is 
primarily of physiological importance, we may safely conclude, from 
the universality of its occurrence, that it is also intimately connected 
with the phylogenetic development of living forms, and hence it 
must meet with due recognition on the part of the morphologist who 
is engaged in comparing the life-history of one group of organisms 
with that of others. 
