ALBERT

Description: In 1969 I published, together with P. G. Heinsbroek, a paper on the anatomy of the stamens of Victoria amazonica. The flowers used in that study came from plants which were cultivated in the green-house of the Leiden Botanic Garden. Because the possibility could not be excluded that the structures then observed were partly the effect of greenhouse conditions, I subsequently took the opportunity to study flowers of well developed plants, which were cultivated in the open air under the tropical conditions of the Botanic Garden at Bogor*). The results were exactly the same. Apart from the set of central vascular bundles, normal in laminar structures, there proved to be a peripheral sheath of bundles consisting of abaxial bundles, terminating half way up the stamen, as well as adaxial bundles. All bundles run parallel and the central ones branch upwards into the fertile region of the stamen. The adaxial bundles anastomose at the lower end of the pollen sacs and one of the resulting anastomoses pursues its course in the middle between the thecae. In literature the last mentioned vascular bundle had been named the \xe2\x80\x98auxiliary vein\xe2\x80\x99 (Moseley, 1958). Its position is opposed to the normal median vein, and its xylem pole is inverted.\nThis vein played a role in diverse morphological opinions on the flat stamens. American authors (Eames, 1961), who advocated the primitiveness of laminar stamen structure, disposed of the auxiliary vein by considering it as an insignificant vein. Schneider (1976) thinks the peripheral bundle system is explicable in functional terms. On the other hand, the discovery of the opposed median auxiliary vein was welcomed by authors like Leinfellner (1956), who thought, mainly on the ground of teratology, that the stamens are diplophyllous structures, that is consist of a dorsal and a ventral blade fused medianly. By this view the existence of apparently homogeneous laminar stamens in Ranales had been difficult to explain. However, now the auxiliary vein could be considered as the median vascular bundle of the fused ventral blade, as requested by the theory. Meeuse (1972) took up the suggestion brought forward in our paper of 1969, namely that the stamen vasculature consisted of a bract component (the abaxial bundles) and a flattened axis component (the central and adaxial bundles), in analogy with the Coniferous female cone scale. According to Meeuse this is proof of his thesis that the structure of the stamen in the Ranales is a bract amalgamated with an axial system. However, careful comparison with the results of C\xc3\xa9cile Lemoine-Sebastian (a.o. 1972) show that the vascular patterns are different from a situation as described above.

Description: Data are presented on Oncoba, Caloncoba, Camptostylus, Dasylepis, Scottellia, Berberidopsis, Lindackeria, and Peterodendron, with special emphasis on development and anatomy of the gynoecium. A neutral view is preferred to the carpel theory. There appears to be a link between parietal and basal placentation. It is proposed to refer to this placentation as cupular. Several peculiarities are found, such as \xe2\x80\x98ramification\xe2\x80\x99 of the stigmatic canals, penetration of the embryosac into the chalaza, distal lobes on integuments, separate vascular traces to the lowermost ovules, etc.

Description: This book was composed after a manuscript left by W. Troll of his work Die Infloreszenzen II, part III, chapter 5, Fischer, Jena, 1969. Part I was published in 1964, part II in 1969. Weberling elaborated and updated this manuscript, describing examples of monotelic families, in the style of W. Troll. Together the three books \xe2\x80\x93 all wrapped in orange covers \xe2\x80\x93 represent a standard work consisting of more than 1700 pages and 1436 figures. The figures are combinations of photographs of living plants, explanatory drawings, and schemes. The drawings especially show good old handwork.\nBecause 20-25 years after the first two volumes this third book will tend to lead its own life, Weberling has included a recapitulation of the principles of polytelic and monotelic inflorescences. There is also a welcome glossary, established in cooperation with D. M\xc3\xbcller-Doblies, in which as a surprise the English translations of the terms are also given. Remarkably, the definitions are not in every case identical to those in the glossary of Weberling\xe2\x80\x99s book Morphology of the flowers and inflorescences.

Description: Male reproductive axes are described which have three pairs of decussate bracts, some with free axillary groups of stamens. The developmental stages are demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The view, earlier advanced for the female counterparts, that these reproductive axes are reduced polyaxial systems, is supported.

Description: This book is an exploration into the field of Plant Morphology. It deals with the placentation of the ovules in ten families of Centrospermae \xe2\x80\x94 including the Cactaceae \xe2\x80\x94 and in the Primulaceae. The core is formed by a very close observation and a complete documentation of the histogenesis of the ovary wall, the septs, and the placentae in four Caryophyllaceous species. Furthermore, the result is compared with similar known and newly discovered features in other species and in the other families.\nIt appears that the ovary is composed of a cup of sterile phyllomes which surrounds a central body. This central part is built up by two alternating sets of five axial placentae bearing the ovules. The septs grow from the cup inwards and fuse with the placentae and their ovules. The pattern of the vascular bundles is in full accordance with the histogenetic results. Variations on this theme occur in the other species and families, the ultimate stage in reduction being an ovary with a solitary terminal ovule. However, the Primulaceae do not fit in this scheme; they cannot be considered as Centrospermae.

Description: In the following the role of morphology, anatomy and palynology in systematics at the Rijksherbarium will be discussed, as far as flowering plants are concerned. It will be demonstrated that most of the research in this field is rooted in the interest of individual workers, and that no planning was involved until recently. The scope of it varied, as it was done either for pure taxonomic purposes, or for systematic and phylogenetic reasons, or for its own merit. Chiefly, I think, the study of morphology s.l. originated because Suringar, Hallier, Lotsy, and especially Lam, were interested in achieving a more natural or evolutionary system of the Angiosperms. Lotsy and Lam extended their interest to the other Cormophytes as well.\nIn 1895 W. F. R. Suringar published a booklet which was intended as a summary of his lectures. His idea was that the tree of natural affinities could be a preparation and a guide to a real genealogical tree. He pictured this tree with a number of main branches, each of them bearing a number of ramification systems. He adorned this tree with a winding red line connecting groups of plants from different ramification systems. Formerly these groups had been arranged in a linear sequence of increasing complexity by A. P. de Candolle.

Description: The structure of the seed is based on the massive development of the ovule immediately above the insertion of the outer integument. This may be called endochalazal development, as suggested by F. Bouman (Pers. comm.).

Description: Descriptions are given of the flowers, fruits, and seeds. The petals have basal scales. The pistil is an urceolate structure issuing in 5\xe2\x80\x947 stigmas. In it are two whorls of ovules along the wall, the lower whorl in the same radial planes as are the stigmas, the upper whorl in alternate radii. The pistil wall is entirely covered by nectariferous hairs. There is a peculiar vascular bundle pattern. The ovule is sessile and atropous, the nucellus is beaked, the inner integument terminates into 2\xe2\x80\x944 projections, the outer integument into 2\xe2\x80\x944 lobes. The ovules develop into inferior seeds mainly by proximal growth. Lobes of the endocarp grow around the ectostome. The testa has its hard layer in the middle. The seeds consist of two parts, a hard container containing a free kernel, an air mantle being enclosed. This is probably a swimming device. As, moreover, the fruit is pulpous, the species probably is diplochorous. The results are put against the theory of metamorphosis and the carpel theory. It is thought that this Malaysian plant is a very unusual, possibly ancient, monotype.

Description: This is the second book by professor Meeuse on the phylogenetic morphology of the reproductive organs of the Higher Cormophytes. It is superior to the first *, not only in the get-up, but also in providing some more information on the principles of the author. The core is disclosed in: \xe2\x80\x98all we can do is to postulate a phylogenetic genealogy, using all available (palaeobotanical) evidence, and build up the evolutionary sequences in the phylogeny of the organs, the semophyleses, along our framework\xe2\x80\x99. And: \xe2\x80\x98Typology is to be checked by fossil data\xe2\x80\x99. We meet the method of the New Morphology, as it was started by H. Hamshaw Thomas.\nThe phylogenetic line depicted leads from the Progymnospermopsida Beck through Cycadopsid Gymnosperms towards Angiosperms. It is impossible to distinguish Angiosperms from Gymnosperms. They are specialised Cycadopsid Gymnosperms, exhibiting polyrheitric angiospermic trends, such as angi-ovuly, double fertilisation, dormant embryo phase, flower types, wood vessels, and aperturate pollen. Some groups have not reached the ultimate level in part of these characters.

Description: Attention is drawn to the differences in place and time of origin of the abaxial (upper) and adaxial (lower) parts of the margin of ascidiform carpel primordia. It is assumed that the adaxial parts will develop more fully when the primordia have more space and time to develop on an expanding floral apex. The favoured occurrence of the margin at the base of the primordia seems a prerequisite to incipient syncarpy.