September 3, 1904. 
The Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“The flowers are sweet, their colours fresh and trim, hut true sweet beauty lived and died with him.”— Shakespeare. 
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RUSSELLIAN A. 
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Views and Reviews. 
Classification of Flowering 
Plants.* 
The author of this, learned book on the 
classification of flowering plants gives an hisi- 
torioal introduction, showing the systems of 
classification, adopted by some of the most 
noted botanical authors from the time of Lin- 
naeusi downwards. The introduction, there¬ 
fore, includes* the systems elaborated by Lin¬ 
naeus,, Jessieu, De Candolle, Endichler, Ben- 
tbaui and Hooker, and the system more 
recently elaborated by Van Tieghem, the 
French botanist. Needless to say, the author 
lia,si a classification of his own based upon, 
more recent scientific knowledge derived 
from a study of the minute, anatomy of 
various living plants, and also a study of the 
extinct, orders of plants, which he regards as 
flowering subjects. 
Generally speaking, this book would deal 
with all the plant® of higher development 
than, the Ferns and their allies. He speaks 
of these flowering plants as Spermatophyteis 
or Seed-plants. This latter term he con¬ 
sider® more appropriate, to, indicate the 
higher groups, of plants than the older and 
better-known, term flowering plants, his, ex¬ 
planation, being that several of the lower 
orders of plants' much beneath the stage, of 
the Ferns have, an arrangement of the leaves 
of fruiting plants, which might he termed 
flowers with as much correctness as the more 
ornamental flowers as usually understood: 
by gardeners and flor ists generally. Those 
who have studied the subject of botany know 
that the, idea, has long been held, and even 
established, that every flower, no matter flow 
complicated, how large or how ornamental, 
has 1 been, derived from ordinary foliage leaves 
by gradual modification, through a long 
period of years,, of which we cannot even, 
guess the number. 
Something very similar to simple types of 
flower may be met with in the Horsetails, 
Club Mosseis and Selaginellas. These lowly 
forms, although they may be described 1 as 
having flowers,, do not bear a structure which 
coulcl be, called a. seed in! any sense of the, 
term ; lienee, the author’s, plea for using the 
term Seed-plants. These latter may have 
*“The Classification of Flowering Plants," by Alfred 
Barton Be mile M.A., D.Sc., F.L.S., Assistant in the Depart¬ 
ment of Botany, British Museum, and Lecturer in Botany at 
the Birkbeck College. Vol. I.. Gvmnosperms and Mono¬ 
cotyledons. Cambridge : At the University Prtss. 1904. 
Price 10s. 6d. 
their seeds borne on structures, without any 
covering, or they may be enclosed in a seed 
vessel. Very common types, of the former 
are Conifers,, such as Pines, Larches, Spruces, 
Silver Firs', Yewsi, etc. It will not occur 
to some that, the seed® are not enclosed in, a 
seed vessel in, such cases, although most gar¬ 
deners are aware that the fruit of the Yew 
is more highly suggestive of this plan, of 
structure. The, author then commences with 
these Cymnosperms whose ovules, are not en¬ 
closed in a seed vessel. 
Hitherto botanists and gardeners who have 
given, the subject any attention have looked 
upon Conifers,, Cycads and Gnetads as form¬ 
ing three separate orders, more or less 
closely allied, and with that classification 
they were satisfied. The author gees much 
further back in order to include the earliest- 
known types of seed-bearing plants which 
are new found only in, the, fossil state. Tak¬ 
ing these fossils together with the, living re¬ 
presentative® of Gymnospe,rms, lie, make® 
out not merely one division of flowering 
plants, but six classes, each containing only 
one order. He thinks that although these 
classes are only represented by a, single 
order at the present day, it is more, than, 
likely that, there are many others if our 
knowledge of fossil vegetation enabled us to 
supply the missing links. 
The oldest-known class of seed plants is 
only found in, the fossil state with no, living 
representative. These are termed Cordiates, 
and occur away back in, the Palaeozoic era 
of the earth, and have, been found in, strata 
of the carboniferous and Devonian age. As 
far as we have been able to- ascertain, they 
form trees ranging from 30 ft. to, 90 ft. in 
height, and had slender stems, somewhat re¬ 
calling those of Palms, but, in the form of 
the leaves they were more like 1 the modern 
Dracaenas and Cordylines, generally broader 
at the upper end and narrow towards the 
base, often, being a, yard in length and per¬ 
fectly undivided in, any way. Noi branches 
were produced by these trees until they 
reached maturity, practically when they 
farmed a, branched head. No, doubt there 
had been a great struggle amongst vegeta¬ 
tion, in, those, days just as there is, now, and 
these Cordaites developed elongated stems 
in order to carry their flowering parts above 
the surrounding vegetation where they would 
have the best, chance of light and air. Some 
fossil trunks of trees, belonging to thisi class 
may be seen at the, South Kensington 
Museum, and by the Museum in the Botani- 
