Reviews

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: ‘all 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’. And: ‘Typology is to be checked by fossil data’. We meet the method of the New Morphology, as it was started by H. Hamshaw Thomas. The 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.