On the Morphology and Relationships on the Taxaceae

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Abstract
As far as the Taxaceae are concerned, no classification of the Gymnospermae hitherto proposed seems to be satisfactory. After having reviewed the morph. of the reproductive organs in certain fossil and the living taxads[long dash]the latter represented by the genera Taxus, Torreya, Nothotaxus. Austrotaxus. and Amentotaxus- -the author points out that in certain respects they stand clearly apart from the true conifers. In the taxads the ovule is always a direct continuation of the flower axis, while in the conifers it is,funda-mentally, terminal on lateral appendages (macrosporophylls) of the flower axis, which were distinctly produced in the earliest fossil genera. The taxads have (uniaxial) female flowers placed singly and axillary on vegetative shoots, while the conifers have cone-like (biaxial) inflorescences composed of female flowers placed in the axils of bracts. As distinguished from the conifers the taxads have, moreover, erect ovules throughout, each of which is enclosed by an aril. The male flowers of the taxads are remarkable for the radial perisporangiate sporophylls in certain genera and for the gradual change into a dorsiventral structure in others. On these grounds the author proposes to exclude the taxads from the Coniferae, and to institute a separate class, Taxales, among the gymnosperms.

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