Fagaceae , and its Bearing on the Affinities of the Group . 523 
bundles which supply only the ovule and styles. In Juglans , four alone of 
these latter, two anterior and two posterior, behave as do the carpellary 
traces in the Fagaceae. giving off dorsal branches which fuse in pairs and 
run up to the stigmas, as well as placental 
strands which pass first horizontally and 
then vertically through the septa to the 
ovule. All the others, according to 
Nicoloff, contribute placental bundles 
only. This latter series of vascular 
strands, converging to the central column 
and then passing upwards to the ovule, 
was regarded by this author as belonging 
to the floral axis, but it seems probable 
that we have here a network of carpel- 
lary strands comparable to that present 
in the same position in the less reduced 
Amentiferae such as Quercus . Neither 
Van Tieghem nor Benson and Welsford 
mention this vascular network, which 
probably only shows bonification at a late period of development, but 
include in their description only the four strands springing from the dorsal 
bundles of the carpels. It is interesting, however, to find the whole net- 
work still persisting, and thus linking this reduced form with the more 
complex multilocular ovary of the Fagaceae. 
Affinity with the Rosales. 
There appears to be nothing in the structure of the flower of the 
Fagaceae to preclude the view that the family is derived from some rather 
primitive angiospermic stock possessing bisexual flowers with syncarpous 
multilocular ovaries ; there seem also to be indications that the ancestral 
flowers may also have been dichlamydeous, pentamerous, and epigynous. 
These features, as well as the large number of characteristics common 
to the Fagaceae and Rosaceae which are summarized below, seem to point 
to ancestors allied to some of the epigynous types among the Rosales. 
Besides the morphological characters already mentioned, we find 
prevailing' in both genera the woody habit, alternate stipulate leaves, 
cymose or frequently dichasial inflorescences, and stamens, when present, 
arranged in at least two whorls, introrse, and strongly incurved in the bud. 
Where the ovary is syncarpous the placentation is axile, the ovules paired, 
bitegumentary, and epitrope, and the seeds exalbuminous. 
The numerous resemblances in the anatomical structure of the 
vegetative organs can readily be traced in the ‘ Concluding Remarks ’ of 
N n 
Fig. 9. Transverse section of pedicel in 
Juglans regia. After Nicoloff. 
