Chinese flora with many endemic elements is highly important in the world’s flora. According to recent statistics there are about 196 genera of spermatophytes, being 6.5% of total Chinese genera. These endemic genera comprising 377 species belong to 68 families, among which the Gesneriaceae (28 genera), Umbelliferae (13), Compositae (13), Orchidaceae (12) and Labiatae (10) are predominant. The tropical type containing 24 families and 80 genera is dominant. After it follows the temperate type with 23 families and 50 genera. There are also 4 families endemic to China, i.e. Ginkgoaceae, Bretschneideraceae, Eucommiaceae and Davidiaceae. It shows that genera endemic to China are obviously related to the tropical and temperate flora in essence. The endemic monotypic genera (139) and endemic obligotypic genera (48) combined make up more than 95% of the total number of genera endemic to China. Phylogenetically more than half of them are ancient or primitive. The life forms of all endemic genera are also diverse. Herbs, especially perennial herbs, prevail with the proportion of about 62%, and trees and shrubs are the next, with 33%, and the rest are lianas. Based upon the calculated number of genera endemic to China in each province and the similarity coefficents between any two provinces, some conclusions may be drawn as follows: Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces combined are the distribution centre of genera endemic to China and may be their original or differentiation area, because numerous endemic genera, including various groups, exist in these two provinces. The second is Guizhou where there are 62 endemic genera. Others form a declining order, south China, central China and east China. But towards the north China endemic genera decrease gradually, and the Qinling Range is an important distributional limit. The largest simitarity coefficient, over 50%, appears between Shaanxi and Gansu probably because of the Qinling Range linking these two provinces. But between any other two provinces it is less than 30% and it is generaly larger between two south provinces than between two north provinces. These characteristics mentioned above are correlated with topography and climate, and they may be resulted from the diversification in geography and climatic influence for a long time.

This paper deals with the constituents of fatty acids from the seed oils of Pinaceae in China, including 30 species belonging to 8 genera. Discovered are three characteristic fatty acids, i.e. Cis-5,9-octadecadienoic acid, Cis-5,9,12-octadecatrienoic acid and Cis-5, 11, 14-eicosatrienoic acid. Based on the data obtained, the distribution of the three characteristic fatty acids in Pinaceae of China is also discussed.

Fritillary is a precious Chinese medicinal herb. Those native to Xinjiang Northwest China, are even more distinguished from other sources for their purity and effectiveness. Fritillaria in Xinjiang comprises 8 native species and one (F. thunbergii Miq.) introduced from Zhejiang, East China. In this paper the authors describe the karyotypes of 6 species native to Xinjiang and F. thunbergii Miq., of which five, i.e.F. olgae Vved., F. walujewii Regel, F. yuminensis X. Z. Duan, F. karelinii (Fisch.) Baker and F. thunbergii Miq. were studied for the first time. Detail observation and measurment of chromosomes in each of them were made. The data obtained may be summarized as follows: scietific name karyotype formula (2n=) F. pallidiflora Schrenk 2m + 2sm + 6st + 14t F. olgae Vved. 4m + 6st + 14t F. walujewii Regel 2m + 2sm + 8st+ 12t F. yuminensis X. Z. Duan 4m + 8st + 12t F. verticillata Willd 4m + 8st + 12t F. karelinii (Fisch.) Baker 4m + 4sm + 4st + 12t F. thunbergii Miq. 2m + 2sm + 4st + 16t The karyotype of the native species are, on the whole, similar to each other except that of F. karelinii (Fisch.) Baker, a species inhabiting desert areas. The number of m-sm chromosomes has increased from 2 to 4 and the number of st-t chromosomes decreased correspondently. So is the karyotype of F. thunbergii Miq. which is noted for its high ratio of long chromosome/short chromosome and the more t-chromosomes. These two peculiar karyotypes coincide amazingly with their specific natural habitats.

The paper reports chromosomal number and chromosomal morphologies of annual Aconitum gymnandrum endemic to China and Beesia calthifolia for the first time. Of the two spcies, chromosome number is same (X=8, 2n=16) and chromosome average lengths are 6.17μ , 10.73μ respectively. The longest chromosome 1, the short chromosomes 3-5, 7 and the shortest chromosome 8 are metacentrical (m), the chromosomes 2, 6 are submetacentrical (sm), and the pairs 4, 5, 8 have satellites in the karyotype of A. gymnandrum. In B. calthifolia, all of the chromosome 1-5 are the long m, the chromosomes 6, 8 are the short sm and the 7 is telocentrical (t). The pairs 3, 4, 6 have satellites. According to the comparison of karyotypes of three subgenera—subgen. Paraconitum, subgen. Aconitum and subgen. Gymnaconitum in Aconitum, the evolution trend of chromosomes is further discussed. Finally, the relationship between Aconitum and Beesia is also discussed in thispaper.

The genus Millettia Wight et Arn. contains about 200 species and is distributed mainly in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa, only a small proportion of species extending towards the northern and southeastern coast of Australia. About half of species are found in Asia, with the greatest concentration in the area from the eastern Himalayas to the hills of Indo-China, i.e. the valleys Irrawaddy, Salween and upper Mekong (Lan-tsang River). Then, there are much fewer species occurring in central and southeastern China, Japan, Indo-China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India and Pakistan. Twigs or stems of some Millettia species arc being used ethnopharmacologically as drugs for oral preparations in China. They appear to possess a tendency of so-called “carminative or stimulant” activities in many home-remedies, but most plants of this genus are poisonous and have recommended as a source of insecticide or used by the natives to stupefy fish. The scientific and common names of many species are puzzled in a confused manner. In the present paper the author reports 35 species with 11 varieties from China, of which five species with four varieties are described as new, eight species are new records to the Chinese flora. Since Wight and Arnott established the genus in 1834, it has had a taxonomic history with so many errors and confusions. The major contribution to the taxonomy of this genus was made by Dunn in 1912, who monographed the genus on a worldwide scale and grouped all 138 species known by then into 15 sections based on morphological characters, while in the Chinese flora 6 sections and 14 species were recognized. Dunn’s work is not very satisfactory because the relationships between sections and descriptions of species are disordered and confused. Unfortunately, there was little work on this genus for almost seventy years. Here the phylogenetic relationships among thirty-five species of Chinese Millettia were investigated by using the Wagner’s method, and twenty-six characters were used and assigned as primitive or specialized states. All taxa recognized ave considered as Operational Taxonomic Units, to which linked are the character divergence values for each. Then the mutual groupings between taxa are determined. The Wagner tree resulted from above procedure indicats that the Millettia species in China belong to six phylogenetic groups, which ate treated here as sections, i.e. Acinacicarpae, Macrospermae, Millettia, Corynecarpae, Brevistylae and Curvistylae. The section Acinacicarpae is characterized by its tropical tree habit, axillary racemiferous panicle, scimitar-shaped and flat pod, which is the widest in the upper part. The section Millettia includes those species from erect shrubs to moderate-sized trees, and they are probably widely distributed in the mesophytic forests. The section Macrospermae has developed a type of large tropical and subtropical liana, with distinctly turgid pod which may indicate a specialized and isolated group of the genus. The following sections are characterized by terminal and axillary panicled inflorescences, climbing or twining shrub habits. The section Eurybotryae and section Curvistylae are the progressive groups which extend northward into warm-temperate regions. And the section Corynecarpae seems to form an intermediate form between the raceme and the panicle. Besides sectional relationships the species ars also recognized based on distinct combinations of morphological characters, geographic ranges, and ecological characteristics. Among the species this paper deals with 18 are endemic to China, and the rest are also found in northern India and Indo-China.

Sonneratia, a small genus of Sonneratiaceae, is widely distributed throughout SE. Asia, E. Africa and N. Australia, extending from 18˚S. to 20˚N. and from 45˚ to 150˚E. In China it occurs only in the Hainan Island. In this paper, two new sections areproposed and six species are recognized, of which one is described as new.