No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The recent development of new techniques for the study of the biological entities which we term genera and species has created a renewed interest in taxonomy as a basic plant science. Modern taxonomy no longer concerns itself primarily with merely cataloguing, with appropriate binomials and brief diagnoses, the variants which do not fit into the pre-existing ^^ pigeon holes/' but is making a sincere attempt to understand the factors which make themselves evident through variation and speciation.The development of the monographic method of plant taxonomy is largely responsible for this change of attitude. The plant kingdom, as a whole, is so inconceivably vast, that it is only by the comparative study of a limited group of related entities that we are able to secure any understanding of the laws which must govern the entire assemblage of groups. It was with this fact in mind that the genus Calocliortus was selected as the subject of the present study.This genus is admirably suited to such an investigation. In ^An investigation carried out at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the Graduate Laboratory of the Henry Shaw School of Botany of Washington University and submitted as a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

No abstract