Studies on the Genus Pseudowintera (Winteraceae), with Emphasis on the Floral Morphology of Pseudowintera Axillaris (J R & G Forst)Dandy

Abstract

Pseudowintera is classified within the family Winteraceae of the woody Ranales (Magnoliales), in the most recent taxonomical literature The members of this family of primitively vesselless plants (Cheadle 1953) exhibit a number of apparently ancient characters and Wood (1958) considers that the section Tasmannia of Drimys a member of the family, combines more numerous primitive features than any other known group of angiosperms. In "Plant Classification", Benson (1957) classifies the family as the most primitive in the dicotyledons. Hutchinson (1959) considers that it is more advanced than the Magnoliaceae and Illiciaceae and that although the wood structure has ancient features, the floral structure is more advanced than the Magnoliaceae, from which it is evidently derived. Such derivation from the Magnoliaceae, the members of which possess vessels, could only have occurred before the family evolved them, unless they had been subsequently lost in the Winteraceae. However Bailey (1944), and Cheadle (1953) consider that the Winteraceae never possessed vessels and Bailey and Smith (1942) do not consider it is closely related to the Magnoliaceae. Bailey and Swamy (1951) believe that the most primitive type of Ranalian carpel so far investigated is found in the Winteraceae. A comprehensive comparative study of the members of the family, has been made by botanists at Harvard University:- Bailey (1944), Bailey and Nast (1943a,1943b,1944a,1944b and 1945), Nast (194-1) and Smith (1943a, 1943b and 1945).