Table of Contents
  • Volume 22 Issue 6

      
      Research Articles
    • Yü Te-Tsun
      1984, 22 (6): 431–444
      Rosaceae. consisting of about 126 genera and 3200 species, is widely distributed in warm temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, while more than half of the genera are Asiatic and more then 80% of the total number of Asiatic occur in China (Table 1). In this paper, the origin and evolution of Chinese genera is discussed mainly. The principal tendency of the whole family is also described from the point of view of evolution. First of all, the systematic position of Rosaceae in Angiospermae is reviewed. According to the records of paleobotany, rosaceous plants occurred first in the Tertiary, from the early period of Eocene (genera such as Spiraea and Prunus) to the late period of Miocene (e.g. Crataegus, Malus amd Rosa). They have quite a long history in geological data. Where has this big and old family originated and what steps does it stand in the long course of evolution of flowering plants? There are several opinions and explanations by different authors. In this paper, a general survey of the six prevailing classical systems (Table 2) is made to give a brief idea of the position of this family in the Angiospermae and of the relationships between the subfamilies and also the relationships between different genera in each subfamily. At the end of this paper, an attempt is made to analyse and sum up the major evolutionary tendency of the whole family. As generally condidered, Rosaceae originated from Magnoliales, and woody plants of the family still hold a dominant position. For instance, subfamily Spiraeoideae consists of only one herbaceous genus (i.e., Aruncus) and subfamily Rosoideae only a few herbaceous genera. All of these herbaceous genera are derived from the closely related woody genera of the same subfamily. In the course of evolution of Angiospermae, Rosaceae stands at the initial to the middle stages of development. All parts of plant body in this family are at the chang ing and developing stages, with carpels, fruits and inflorescences being the most active. The primitive types in this family, such as the members of subfamily Spiraeoideae, usually have 5 and free carpels, the number of which are either reduced to 2-1 or increased to 10-numerous. They have different levels of union and are either completely free from each other or coherent at base. The carpels usually occur on the upper part of the receptacle, because the shapes of receptacle are variable, sometimes disk-shaped, cupshaped, tube-shaped or even bottle-shaped. In the last case carpels grow inside the receptacle. Thus the position of carpels has changed from superior to inferior through halfsuperior. In accordance with the development of the carpels, various kinds of fruits are produced. The primitive types of fruit are follicles, with dry, dehiscent carpels opened along different sutures. The next step, the carpels have developed into an indehiscent, I-celled and l-seeded fruit, the so-caned achene. In different genera, the achenes have different coat types and appendages to facilitate dispersing the seeds. Some of the achenes grow upon the fleshy receptacle (like strawberry) and some of them inside the fleshy receptacle (like rose). Sometimes a few carpels are united with the receptacle and develop into a pome (like apple and pear). Another direction of the fruit development is the single carpel with fleshy exocarp and mesocarp, and a bony endocarp, then becoming a drupe (like peach and plum). In addition to fleshy receptacle of thickened fruit coats, they usually have showy colour, fragrant smell and also plenty of sugars, acids, vitamins, etc. which are edible and attract animals and human beings to assist the dispersion of seeds. In this family, there are various types of flower arrangements, both indefinite inflorescences including raceme, umbel, corymb and panicle, and the definite inflorescence, such as solitary flower, cyme and compound cyme. In the evolution course, they tend to change mostly from multiflowered compound inflorescence towards few-flowered simple inflorescence, and finally becoming a solitary flower: simultaneously with the decreasing of number of flowers on the inflorescence, the increasing of size of petals, which become very showy for attraction of insects so as to guarantee pollination and fertilization of the plants concerned. Another tendency, if the bisexual flowers change to unisexual, either monoecious- or dioecious-polygamous, then they form a dense spike which is beneficial to cross pollination. The abundance, diversity, and wide range of distribution of the species and genera of Rosaceae are considered mainly resulted from their highly developed reproductive organs.
    • Shih Chu
      1984, 22 (6): 445–455
      Since the 19th century many botanists have studied the Chinese Cirsium and a great number of taxa or names has been reported, of which many still need to be reviewed critically This work is a preliminaxy result of study on Chinese species of Cirsium. As many as 65 taxan or names in the literature are reduced to synonym in this paper. The Cirsium in China so far known comprises 49 species, of which 9 are described as new, 1 is a new combination and 4 are new records in Chinese flora. These new species are: C. subulariforme Shih, S. muliense Shih, C. fanjingshanense Shih, C. periacanthaceum Shih, C. racemiforme Ling et Shih, C. vernonioides Shih, C. chrysolepis Shih, C. tenuifolium Shih and the new combination is C. viridifolium (Hand. -Mazz.) Shih. The new records in China are C. serratuloides (L.) Hill., C. incanum (S. G. Gmel.) Fisch. ex MB., C. lanatum (Roxb. ex Willd.) Spreng and C. alatum (S. G. Gmel) Bobr. The Chinese Cirsium is divided into 8 sections in the present paper, of which 3 are new, namely, Sect. Isolepis Shih, Sect. Tricholepis Shilh and Sect. Hymenolepis Shih, and I is a new combination, namely, Sect. Spanioptilon (Cass.) Shih. In addition, a new species of the genus Alfredia, A. aspera Slih, is described.
    • Wang Fu-Hsiung, Chien Nan-Fang, Zhang Yu-Long
      1984, 22 (6): 456–460
      Trochodendron, Tetracentron and Euptelea are considered as a small group of the primitive angiosperms. They are endemic to or mainly distributed in China. Their systematic position has long been debated. The purpose of the present work is to present palynological data both for systematic discussion and for the identification of fossil pollen. The three genera share a number of pollen characters, for example, being spheroid in shape, exine surface distinctly reticulate and lumina rather small and irregular in shape, etc. They are, however, obviously different in other respects of pollen morphology. The pollen grains of Euptelea are the largest of three (c. 30 μm in diameter), those of Tetracentron, the smallest (c. 15) and those of Trochodendron, intermediate (c. 20), 3-colpate in Trochodendron and Tetracentron, and those in Euptelea are 3-celpate but with transitional apertures in one species and 6-rugate, not 3-colpate, in the other. The ruga membranes are coarsely granular (rod-shaped elements under SEM). The lumina are the smallest in Euptelea. Muri in Tetracentron are distinctly striate. Thus, the establishment of three separate families is supported by pollen morphology. Since the pollen grains of Trochodendron and Tetracentron are 3-colpate and those of Magnoliaceae are 1-sulcate, it seems unreasonable to refer them to Magnoliaceae (or Magnoliales). If the rugae of pollen grains in Euptelea further shortened and their number increased, they would resemble those of Hamamelidaceae (such as Sycopsis). Pollen morphology, therefore, suggests that Euptelea is related to Hamamelidales, and supports Cronquist’s viewpoint. Hutchinson (1969) includes both Trochodendron and Euptelea in the same family (Trochodendraceae). However, these two genera are rather distinct in morphology and structure, the presence or absence of vessels and chromosome number, etc. Pollen morphology of two genera also disagrees with the Hutchinson’s viewpoint.
    • Xue Xiang-Ji, Zhang Ru-Song, Zhang Zhi-Ming, Hsu Ping-Sheng
      1984, 22 (6): 461–465
      The genus Macrocarpium has been accepted only by a few scholars since its separation from Cornus L. by T. Nakai in 1909. Bentham, Hooker, Hutchinson and the others consider that the ovary of Macrocarpium is 2-celled and the genus should be placed back into Cornus. We have discovered that are generally I-celled. In addition, Macrocarpium is different from Cornus in basic chromosome number (X), flowering physiological character, inflorescence type and involucral scale. Thus the genus Ma-crocarpium (Spach) Nakai should be reaffirmed.
    • Kurban·Nizamidin
      1984, 22 (6): 466–468
      The karyotypes of 3 species of Ceratoides (C. arborescens, C. ewersmanniana and C. latens) were studied. The results show that C. arborescens is a diploid, with karyotype formula 2n=2x=18=16m+2sm, C. ewersmanniana is also a diploid, with 2n=2x=18=14m+4sm, while C. latens is a tetraploid, with 2n=4x=36=24m+12sm. According to the karyotypes, the morphological features and geographical distribution, C. arborescens seems to be a primitive species and it might have originated in northern China. C. arborescens and C. ewersmanniana are similar to each other, not only in morphology but also in karyotype, which shows that they are closely related and that C. arborescens might be the progenitor of C. ewersmanniana. The karyotypes of the 3 speciesof Ceratoides are basically identical, with only minor differences.
    • Chen Shou-Liang, Jin Yue-Xing
      1984, 22 (6): 469–475
      Our observation of the leaf epidermis of many species in Gramineae shows that Paspalinae Keng & Keng f. (nom. nud.) and Paspalidiinae Keng & Keng f. (nom. nud.) are two good subtribes, and the characters of the genus Brachiaria Griseb. are quite different from those of the genus Urochloa Beauv. The Latin descriptions of new taxa are given in this paper, These are subtrib. Paspalinae Keng & Keng f., Oplismenus fujianensis S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, O. compositus var. submuticus S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, O. patens var. yunnanensis S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, O. undulatifolius var. binatus S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, O. undulatifolius var. glabrus S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, Brachiaria urocoides S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, B. subquadripara var. setulosa S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, B. villosa var. glabrata S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin, Urochloa cordata Keng, U.reptans var, glabra S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin and subtrib. Paspalidiinae: Keng & Keng f..
    • Huang Xie-Cai
      1984, 22 (6): 486–489
      Guangdougen is generally known as Shandougen. It is a traditional Chinese drug. It can be used as antipyretic, antidote, anodyne or antiinflammation agent. In recent years, some compounds (alkaloids, flavones and a new glycoside) such as cytisine, matrine, oxymatrine, pterocarpin and isoprenyl chalcone, have been isolated from roots of Guangdougen for medicinal purposes. They give effects of antiarrhythmia, anticancer or antiulcer. A recent investigation reveals that the Guangdougen comes from Sophora tonkinensis Gagnep. (syn. Sophora subprostrata Chun et T. Chen) and Sophora tonkinensis Gagnep. var. polyphylla S. Z. Huang et Z. C. Zhou, var. nov. Gnangdougen is geographically restricted to SE. and NW. Guangxi and SE. Guizhou and Yunnan (103-109°E, 22-26°N). They have an ecological preference for limestone regions, very commonly growing in mountains of 500-800 m alt.
    • Wang Wan-Xian
      1984, 22 (6): 490–492
    • Lan Kai-Min
      1984, 22 (6): 492–492
    • Qi Cheng-Jing
      1984, 22 (6): 493–494
    • Li Ping-Tao, Chen Xi-Mu
      1984, 22 (6): 495–496
    • Lu An-Ming
      1984, 22 (6): 497–508
      The present paper aims at introducting Dahlgren’s system of classification of the angiosperms. Phenetic and phylogenetic classifications are discussed. The basic principles and methods used by Dahlgren are explained. Dahlgren’s opinions on some important problems, such as the origin of angiosperms, the flowers of primitive angiosperms, the relation between the dicotyledons and monocotyledons, the origin of the monocotyledons, the treatment of the “Amentiferae” and of the orders of the “Sympetalae”, are all expressed. A brief comparison between Dahlgren’s system and three other current systems, viz. those of Takhtajan, Cronquist and Thorne is also given.
Editors-in-Chief
Song Ge
Jun Wen
Impact Factor
3.7
JCR 2022 IF ranking: 60/238 (Plant Sciences, top 25%, Q2 quartile)
Journal Abbreviation: J Syst Evol
ISSN: 1674-4918 (Print)
1759-6831 (Online)
CN: 11-5779/Q
Frequency: Bi-monthly

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