Obituary .— Miss Ethel Sargant , ELS. iii 
seed-leaf, the scattered vascular bundles, the usual absence of secondary 
growth, and the sheathing leaf-base. In all these points her position 
is supported by a careful comparison with Dicotyledons of similar 
habit. 
The full memoir appeals, as is natural, to the specialist; for the more 
general reader there is an admirable summary of the theory in an article on 
the Evolution of Monocotyledons, published in the ‘ Botanical Gazette 9 for 
1904. Some years later an elaborate discussion of the whole theoretical 
position appeared in the ‘Annals ’ (1908) under the title ‘ The Reconstruction 
of a Race of Primitive Angiosperms ’. Her conclusion is : ‘It is probable, 
therefore, that the Primitive Angiosperms resembled Dicotyledons much 
more nearly than Monocotyledons in their general features, as well as in 
stem anatomy and the possession of two cotyledons ’ (p. 183). 
Whether Miss Sargant’s theory be ultimately accepted or not, there is 
no doubt that it has exercised a considerable influence on contemporary 
botanical opinion. The details are worked out so fully and precisely as to 
give a solid basis to the hypothesis of the origin of Monocotyledons from 
a Dicotyledonous stock. At present the weakness of the theory lies in the 
absence of any palaeontological evidence in its support. The early history 
of Angiosperms is still unknown, but so far as they have been traced back, 
Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons appear to be of equal antiquity and to 
show no signs of convergence. At the same time it would be unfair to lay 
too much stress on facts which may prove no more than our admitted 
ignorance of the first stages of Angiospermous evolution. On purely mor¬ 
phological grounds Miss Sargant’s theory holds a strong position. 
In connexion with her general work on seedlings Miss Sargant paid 
special attention to the difficult subject of the anatomy and morphology of 
the Grass embryo ; two papers, in conjunction with Mrs. Arber, are devoted 
to this special investigation (1905 and 1915). An admirable discussion of 
the position of vegetable embryology was given by Miss Sargant in her able 
address to the Botanical Section of the British Association in 1913. 
We have now run rapidly through Miss Sargant’s more important 
original contributions to science. She gave in addition a few popular 
addresses, but her serious teaching was limited to a course of lectures at the 
University of London in 1907 on the Ancestry of Angiosperms; her 
‘ Reconstruction ’ paper, referred to above, is an abstract of these lectures. 
Her taste and enthusiasm were all for research, and she was unwilling to 
allow herself to be distracted from it by teaching. She published two essays 
of a general character—on ‘Women and Original Research’ (1900), and on 
‘The Inheritance of a University’ (1901). Two passages from the latter 
may be quoted: ‘ The great inheritance, then, of the Universities is the 
tradition of learning for learning’s sake’ (p. 7). ‘Frenchmen, Scotchmen, 
Americans have a respect for learning: the Englishman alone asks of what 
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