Origin and Development of the Composite. 159 
CHAPTER I. 
HISTORY OF THE GLASSIFICATION OF THE COMPOSITE. 
In the history of synantherology the classifications of the 
taxonomists have been in the majority of cases more or less artificial 
attempts at grouping related genera and only a few have made any 
attempt at expressing the affinities of the tribes and sub-tribes. On 
the other hand a number of students of the Composite have expressed 
views concerning the relationships of the tribes, but these views 
have been founded in some cases on somewhat limited enquiries into 
the anatomy and morphology of a number of genera. 
It has been found convenient, therefore, to discuss the history 
of the grouping of the genera into tribes and the history of the 
grouping of the tribes according to their supposed relationships in 
separate sub-sections. 
A. Taxonomy. 
The present sub-section deals not so much with the precise 
details of the classification of the family as with the evolution of 
the idea of the family as such and of the ideas of the different 
tribes as groups. It is an attempt to trace this evolution from the 
first more or less sub-conscious grouping of Sonchus, Cichorium and 
other Cichorieae by Theophrastus to the modern conceptions of 
the divisions and sub-divisions of this immense and homogeneous 
mass of species. 
Ancient Systems. 
Theophrastus. Circa B.C. 320. 
The origin of the idea of two of the tribes of the family, the 
Cichorieae and Cynareae, seems to be lost in antiquity like the origin 
of some other very natural groups, which, as Greene (37) says, must 
have been recognised by primitive man from the earliest times. 
They are distinguished very clearly by Theophrastus in his Enquiry 
into Plants (83). The chicory-like plants (x'X^P'wSt/s) discussed 
in Book VII, Chapter XI, include Cichorium , Hypochcevis, Taraxacum 
and Picris, all described and distinguished from one another and 
given, moreover, only as examples of the class. The distinguishing 
characters of the group are given clearly and concisely. Theophrastus 
also mentions in Book I, Chapter X, the pine-thistle and “all the 
plants which belong to that class,” the aKai/ajSwv or aKav&oSwv. 
As he mentions the Acanaceae again more than once it is obvious 
that the recognition of the Cynareae as a group was to Theophrastus 
a commonplace. In Book I, Chapter XIII, he also describes a 
group of plants distinguished by having the flower on the top of the 
actual seeds and with one flower attached to each seed; as these 
