The subdivision of the Leguminosae-Papilionoideae into taxa of lower rank was subject for major discrepancies between traditional classifications while more recent phylogenetic studies provided no decisive answer to this problem. As a contribution towards resolving this situation, 81 morphological characters were recorded comparatively for 226 species and infra-specific taxa belonging to 75 genera representing 21 of the 32 tribes currently recognized in this subfamily. The data matrix was subjected to cluster analysis using the Sørensen distance measure and Ward's clustering method of the PC-ord version-5 package of programs for Windows. This combination was selected from among the 56 combinations available in this package because it produced the taxonomically most feasible arrangement of the genera and species. The 75 genera are divided into two main groups A and B, whose recognition requires little more than the re-alignment of a few genera to resemble tribes 1-18 (Sophoreae to Hedysareae) and tribes 19-32 (Loteae to Genisteae), respectively, in the currently accepted classification. Only six of the 21 tribes represented by two or more genera seem sufficiently robust as the genera representing each of them hold together in only one of the two major groups A and B. Of the 29 genera represented by more than one species each 17, 7 and 5 are taxonomically coherent, nearly coherent and incoherent, respectively. The currently accepted circumscription and inter-relationships among the disrupted tribes and genera are in need of much detailed investigation.

Pollen grains of 20 species belonging to 7 genera of Polygonaceae represented in the Flora were studied using Light and Scanning Electron Microscope. Pollen characters, including those of size, shape, exine sculpture and structure of the aperture allowed the recognition of five pollen types: Atraphaxixs, Calligonum-Oxygonum, Persicaria, Polygonum and Rumex-Emex types. A key for the seperation of the different types is provided and the pollen morphology in relation to taxonomy of the investigated taxa is briefly discussed.

M ANUALLy constructed keys for identification of plants leave much to be desired. Keys to the Asteraceae of Egypt are no exception and depend largely on floral minutiae while vegetative morphology is a much richer source of characters suitable for key construction. Inspection of some 3000 specimens showed that the most obvious feature of the plants is the presence or absence of spines on leaves, leaf axils, stem internodes, margins of stem wings and phyllaries. This feature was selected to divide species of this family into two main groups: spiny and spineless. Nomenclature of all taxa was updated and those with names reduced to synonyms of others were eliminated. This article deals only with the 65 species belonging to 20 genera of the first group. A total of 51 characters describing variation in spine distribution and other characters of vegetative morphology were recorded for each of the 65 spiny species and the key-generating program DELTA was applied to the data matrix. The result is a much improved automated key, a detailed description of every species in terms of the entire set of 51 characters, and the same description but in terms of the serial numbers assigned to these characters and their states.

No abstract

The novel occurrence of Helenium amarum (Raf.) H. Rock var. amarum and Pulicaria dysenterica (L.) Gaertn. (Asteraceae) in the flora of Egypt is reported. Apart from the single collection of H. amarum var. amarum in Australia, this taxon was not recorded previously outside its country of origin in South-Eastern United States and Mexico. With the recording of Pulicaria dysenterica in Egypt, Libya remains the only Mediterranean country where it has not as yet been found. Detailed description of the two species in terms of 83 characters is provided. A data matrix including the eight Pulicaria species found in Egypt and 19 of their morphological characters was compiled and a conventional key was constructed using the key-generating computer program suit DELTA.