8 4 
A Neglected Branch of Botany. 
de Botanique” entitled “ Recherches sur le genre Sezannella.” 
The generic name Sezanella was proposed by Munier-Chalmas for 
specimens of flowers and fruits; the flowers, referred to two 
species, Sezanella major and 6'. minor , are characterised by the 
possession of a polyphyllous perianth composed of five large 
oval sepals, valvate in bud, alternating with five stamens with 
unusually long anthers dehiscing porocidally. The ovary is formed 
of five concrescent carpels with axile placentation containing two 
rows of horizontal ovules ; the slender style, three to four times 
the length of the ovary, terminates in a capitate stigma. The fruit 
is a spherical capsule with septicidal dehiscence 1-2 cm. in 
diameter. Another feature worthy of notice is the prolongation of 
the pedicel of the flower as a column on which the ovary and 
androecium are borne. Some of the floral characters suggest 
comparison with the Malvaceae, but it is to the Lasiopetaleae, a 
tribe of the Sterculiaceae, and to the two genera Lysiopetalum and 
Lasiopetalum that M. Viguier considers the fossil species to be 
most closely allied. Certain leaf-impressions described by Saporta 
as Pterospermites incequifolius may possibly represent the foliage of 
Sezanella. With the exception of the two West Australian genera 
with which Sezanella is compared the Sterculiaceae are tropical in 
their distribution. If, therefore, the conclusions of M. Viguier are 
correct, they form a particularly interesting contribution to our 
knowledge of plant-geography recalling Unger’s statements, based 
on evidence which was justly called in question by Bentham, 1 in 
regard to the presence of Australian types in Tertiary Europe. 
There can be little doubt that a thorough study of Tertiary 
plants would throw considerable light on the past history of 
Angiosperms. It is unfortunate that the nature of the records of 
Flowering plants has led to an unnecessarily pessimistic attitude on 
the part of many botanists towards investigations in this depart¬ 
ment of Botany; we know that the enthusiasm of some of the 
earlier writers has been responsible for the publication of lists of 
species founded on wholly inadequate data, but this is hardly a 
sufficient reason for the neglect which Cretaceous and Tertiary 
fossils have suffered in recent years at the hands of European 
botanists. No sane person is likely to dispute the inferiority of 
casts and impressions to petrifactions ; but to condemn as useless 
the less promising material suggests partial acquaintance with the 
facts or lack of enterprise. A. C. Seward. 
1 Bentham, Presid. Address, Linn. Soc., 1870, pp. 12 et seq. 
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