The present investigation deals with the early embryogeny of Fokienia hodginssii (Dunn) Henry et Thomas with a note on its systematic position. The material was collected on April 17 to September 13 in 1964 from longquan, Fengyang Shan in the province of Zhejiang, at alt. 1000 to 1400 M. Fokienia Henry et Thomas, a member of the subfamily Cupressoideae of northern hemisphere, is a monotypic genus with the only species Fokienia hodginssii (Dunn) Henry et Thomas. The zygote divides three times, giving rise to eight free nuclei, then wall-formation follows. As a result, the 8 cells of the proembryo are arranged in two groups: The upper one, the open tier (O) and the lower one, the primary embryo cells (PE). The relative number of these cells (0: PE) is usually 4:4, occasionally 5:3, rarely 6:2. The cells in the upper and lower groups divide simultaneously. A proembryo of three groups of cells may be formed. The upper tier (U), the suspensor tier (P), and the embryo cells (E). U:S:E is usually 4:4:8, occasionally 5:5:6. rarely 6:6:4. The U and E are of common in origin. The primary embryo cells sometimes remain undivided though the cells of upper tier divide as usual and the prosuspensor celts elongate also. In this case, U: S: E is 4:4:4 or 5:5:3 or 6:6:2. Cleavage polyembryony occurs quite often. Generally, the cleavage polyembryony is caused by the different growth rate of the primary suspensor. Sometimes, the terminal cells cut off when cells of primary suspensor are elongating. The terminal cells elongate and divide repeatly, thus a number of successive suspensor tubes are produced.This is a derivative type in the cleavage polyembryony of Fokicnia. This specialized type of polyembryony likes that of the Juniperoid. Different view points exist in the taxonomic treatments of the Cupressaceae. Many taxonomists divide the family Cupressaceae into 2—4 subfamilies. From the view point of the early embryogeny, the author considers that Li’s (1953) treatment is a more appropriate one. According to cone structure and arrangement of ovuliferous scales. Li (1953) divides the family Cupressaceae into two subfamilies; i.e. subfamily Cupressoideae of northern hemisphere having ovuliferous scales of imbricate arrangement and Callitroideae of southern hemisphere having scales of valvate arrangement. It is interesting to note that the wall-formation of proembryo in northern hemisphere plants of Cupressaceae takes place at 8 free nuclear stage, while those in southern hemisphere ones, at 4 free nuclear stage. Apparently, the status of proembryogeny gives support to the view points of Li (1953). From the point of view of early embryogeny,however, there are still more questions to be discussed. For example, in the subfamily Cupressoideae of northern hemisphere, Li considered the tribe Cupresseae as the primitive and the genus Thujopsis of the tribe Thujopsideae derives from genus Fokienia of the tribe Cupresseae. According to the data obtained from the early embryogeny, the author considers the tribe Thujopsideae to be the most primitive of the three tribes in the subfamily Cupressoideae, then the tribes Cupresseae and finally, the tribe Junipereae. Embryogenesis of Fokienia, the northern hemisphere members of the Cupressaceae, is a specific type, whose systematic position is possibly between Chamaecyparis andSabina.

The genus Ottelia is one of the great genera of Hydrocharidaceae. About 25 species distributed in the Palaeotropics, extending from Africa through India and SE. Asia to Korea and Japan, Australia and New Caledonia, 1 species in Brazil; centres of specific devolopment are found in Central Africa and SE Asia. The present study is mainly based on the materials collected during the field explorations in the lakes of Yunnan and observations on the structure of the spathe and flowers, the variation of leaf of the plants cultivated in Kunming Bot. Garden. Instead of the wings of the spathe used by Dandy, by the characters such as uni-or bisexual flowers, this genus is divided into two subgenera, which by the number of the flowers in spathe and the number of the carpus in ovary again subdivided into 4 sections. They are as the following: A. Subg. Ottelia. Flowers bisexual. Sect. 1. Ottelia. Spathe with 1 flower; ovary with 6(—9) carpus. Sect. 2. Oligolobos (Gagnep.) Dandy. Spathe with many flowers; ovary with 3 carpus. B. Subg. Boottia (Wall.) Dandy. Flowers unisexual; the male spathe with 1-many flowers, the female spathe with many flowers. Sect. 3. Boottia. The male spathe with 1 flower; ovary with 9(—15) carpus. Sect. 4. Xystrolobos (Gagnep.) H. Li. The female spathe with (2-) many flowers; ovary with 3 or 9 carpus. The Chinense species of ottelia is in great need for revision. All of the species in China previousely described under Ottelia Pers, Boottia Wall., Oligolobos Gagnep, and Xystrolobos Gagen. are here combined into 3 species. They are O. alismoides, O. cordata, O. acuminata with 4 variaties. After a study of the geographic distribution and infer relation-ships among the floristic elements it has been proved that Ottelia is certainly an ancient genus, and the primitive types came into being and widely dispersed before the separation of Laurasia from Gondwana. During a considerable period of time the elements of the genus Ottelia in freshwater environment of different continents have been separately differentiated and evolved into more or less derived types. The structure of flowers in all of the asian species shows the following evolutionary tendenoes: 1. In this genus the plants with unisexual flowers have evolved from plants with bisexual flower; 2. In the groups with bisexual or unisexual flowers the number of stamens and styles reduced to 3-merous, but the number of flowers in spathe increased. So that the subgenus Ottelia is more primitive than the subgenus Bottia; While in the subgenus Ottelia O. alismoides is a more primitive than O. balansae and in the subgenus Boottia O. cordata is the most primitive, butO. alata seems to be the most advanced.

Sparganium is a genus of about 18 species, largely distributed in temperate and cool regions of the northern hemisphere, with a couple of species extending to tropical Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In China, four species have hitherto been reported. To them another six species, including three new ones, are added in the present paper, based on our recent collections. They may be divided into four sections: I. Sect. Sparganium 1. S. stolon ferum (Graebn.) Buch-Ham. 2. S. stenophyllum Maxim. ex Meinsh. 3. S. limosum Y. D. Chen, sp. nov. II. Sect. Natantia Aschers. et Graebn. 4. S. fallax Graebn. 5. S. simplex Huds. 6. S. glomeratum Least ex Beurl. III. Sect. Conferta Y. D. Chen, sect. nov. 7. S. confertum Y. D. Chen, sp. nov. IV. Sect. Minima Aschers, et Graebn. 8. S. yunnanense Y. D. Chen, sp. nov. 9. S. angustifolium Michx. 10. S. minimum Wallr. It is interesting to note that S. confertum is of great phylogenetic importance, because, apart from its habit, it has certain characters, such as spike-like inflorescence, pellucid and membranous scales with lobed margines, stalked ovary and sterile female flowers on pistillate heads, which suggest those in Typha, especially in T. orientalis Presl. Apparently, the discovery of this intensely interesting species, which forms aconnecting link between Sparganium and Typha, makes it unacceptable that they are treated as two separate families.

As a genus, Aleuritopteris was first founded by Fée upon Pteris farinosa Forsk. in 1852. The genus had been ever since, however, practically forgotten, because it did not receive a general recognition among the fern students, who considered it either as Cheilanthes (Baker. 1897, Diels, 1900, C. Christensen 1905), or placed it in Pellaea (Hooker. 1858, Hope et Wright 1903). Ching (1941) first reinstated the status of Aleuritopteris and later followed by Copeland (1947), Panigrahi (1961, 1962.) and Pichi-Sermolli (1975). In recent years, however, some pteridologists (Nayar, 1962, K. Iwatsuki and others) are still against it as a distinct genus. Our recent study of the rich material on hand has shown Aleuritopteris to be a distinct genus, according to both the morphological characteristics and geographical distribution. We further propose the possibly evolutionary relationships of Aleuritopteris with other related genera of the Cheilanthoid ferns, as indicated by the above scheme. The genus is now represcented by a little more than 30 species, of which 25 areknown in China, among which 8 species and 3 varieties are diescribed for the first time.

The “Iconographia Plantarum” written by Wu Chi-Tseng in the Qing Dynasty (A. D. 1848) is a classical monumental work in the literature of botany. 1714 species of plants widely-spread all over 19 provinces of our country, especeally in Jiangxi, Hunan and Yunnan Provinces, were described in this book. nan and Yunnan Provinces, were described try, especeally in Jiangxi, Hunan and Yun. In order to make the plant names coincide with the original material as possible, the author had commented upon chinese herbal in considerable detail. Most of the plants were illustrated after their habitual appearence in somewhat clear manner. As a means for identifying certain species of the plant, this work has been playing an important role in development of modern botanical science in China. In modern taxonomical books a great deal of chinese name of plants are originated from this book, and they were available for reference to numerous researchers both at home and abroad. On account of inadequate observation, a lot of mistakes or misleadings occured in this book, and often been overlooked by the later botanists. Some of the modern authors still adhere to the work “Iconographia Plantarum”and even quoting the erroneous statement from it, thus we have to correct. This paper annotates and commentates the misleading items of 36 species of plant, and calls for the attention to the future readers.