APPENDIX. 
— 
1. SYNOPTICAL KEY TO THE FAMILIES. 
In the first edition of this work, published in 1906, I adopted the classifi- 
cation followed by Hooker and Bentham in their well-known “ Genera 
Plantarum,” published between the years 1862 and 1883. It was the 
arrangement followed by Hooker in his ‘ Flora Novae-Zelandiae” and 
im the later “‘ Handbook of the New Zealand Flora.” It was also used 
by Bentham in his “ Flora Australiensis,’” and in the whole of the series 
of colonial floras prepared under the more or less active guidance of the 
authorities at Kew. Its principal defect is the unnatural position given 
to the Gymnosperms, and in the sequence of the families of the Dicoty- 
ledons, which is made to depend entirely on the characters afforded by the 
perianth ; the polypetalous orders being followed by the gamopetalous, 
and these in their turn by the various families in which the floral envelopes 
are less developed or altogether wanting. But this last group, known as 
the Monochlamydeae or Incompletae, consists largely of families presenting 
well-marked affinities with others in the Polypetalous or Gamopetalous 
divisions. Hence hy recent authors, and notably by Engler in “ Die 
Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien,’ the Monochlamydeous division has been 
entirely abandoned, the families composing it being relegated in part to 
the Polypetaleae and in part to the Gamopetalae. 
Of Jate years Engler’s views have received wide acceptance, and have 
been followed in most recent floras. I am therefore adopting it in this 
edition. The subjoined clavis gives the characters of the families and 
their position in the classification. 
SuUBKINGDOM |. CRYPTOGAMIA. 
Plants not bearing true flowers—that is, having no stamens nor ovules, 
and never producing seeds containing an embryo. 
Chass I. PTERIDOPHYTA, 
Plants usually furnished with roots, leaves, and stems; in all cases 
contaiming well-developed vascular tissue. Reproductive organs origin- 
ating from sporangia or spore-cases, containing microscopic spores, which 
on germination develop a flat or irregular prothallium, which bears the 
antheridia and archegonia. 
1. Filices. Sporangia minute, placed on the margin or under-surface 
of the leaf or frond, rarely somewhat larger and arranged in spikes or 
panicles. Spores all of one kind.—Fronds circinate in vernation (except In 
the suborder Ophioglossaceae). (p. 1.) 
2. Marsileaceae. Sporangia of 2 kinds, macrosporangia and micro- 
sporangia, enclosed together in the cavities or cells of globose sporocarps 
near the base of the fronds. Macrosporangia containing a single macro- 
spore; mucrosporangia with numerous microspores.—Marsh-plants, usually 
of small size; fronds circinate in vernation. (p. 95.) 
