Plant cuticles are covered by waxes with considerable ultrastructural and chemical diversity. Many of them are of great systematic significance. Waxes are an essential structural element of the surface and of fundamental functional and ecological importance for the interaction between plants and their environment. An extensive literature has been published since the introduction of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Hitherto, the area has lacked a complete classification and terminology necessary as a standard for comparative descriptions. A refined classification and terminology of epicuticular waxes is therefore proposed based on highresolution SEM analysis of at least 13 000 species, representing all major groups of seed plants. In total 23 wax types are classified. Thin wax films appear to be ubiquitous, while thicker layers or crusts are rare. The most prominent structures are local wax projections, which most probably result from self-assembly of wax molecules. These projections are supposed to be mainly of a crystalline nature and are termed crystalloids here. Among these, platelets and tubules are the most prominent types, while platelets arranged in parallel rows and stomata1 wax chimneys are the most striking orientation and aggregation patterns. In addition, a comprehensive overview on the correlation between wax ultrastructure and chemical composition is given. 0 1998 The Linnean Society of London ADDITIONAL

The aim of this paper is to show how micromorphology is able to furnish information with the degree of precision necessary for analysing site formation processes and traces of activities in a variety of settings. Use of large resin-impregnated thin sections allows contextual analysis of taphonomy and depositional relationships between sediments and artefact and bioarchaeological remains. We illustrate this by reference to results from a three-year NERC project which examined depositional sequences in core domestic and ritual contexts in three early urban sites in the Near East in different sociocultural and environmental contexts. We discuss how micromorphology is able to trace different pre-depositional, depositional and post-depositional histories of components, before considering its contribution to detecting spatial and temporal variation in uses of space; enabling identification of single depositional episodes within secondary contexts. Together these capacities are providing richly networked data on human activities and behaviour.

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Observations made on the anatomy of Phlomis and Eremostachys confirm previous views that the two genera are closely related, but characters such as trichomes and petiole structure can be used to distinguish species and groups of species. Within Phlomis, two distinct groups can be recognized using chromosome data. Phlomis section Phlomis has fewer (2n= 20) and larger chromosomes and Phlomis section Phlomoides has more (2n= 22) and smaller chromosomes. Eremostachys has chromosomes corresponding to those of Phlomis section Phlomoides. Flavones are similar in both Phlomis and Eremostachys; the shrubby species belonging to Phlomis section Phlomis also have flavonols.