The morphological and anatomical characters of the spermoderm of 49 native and foreign taxa in Wettstein's tribe Solaneae were investigated for their delimitation as well as for a speculation of their phylogenetic status. The observations culminated into the suggestion of an identificatory key. Taxonomic changes including transference (re-allocation) and addition were done for some taxa. Nomenclatural amendments for some other taxa were suggested and a new species, Atropa lutea, has been reached at. The phylogenetic status of the studied taxa was speculated relying on the number of the spermoderm layers. Multi-layered spermoderm was considered less advanced than the few-layered one.

1The pod morphological and anatomical characters of 20 species, one sub-species and five varieties of Astragalus out of the 32 species growing in Egypt were investigated by light and scanning eletron microscopy, and numerically analysed to show the inter-as well as the infra-specific relationships. It was concluded that both A. trimestris and A. corrugatus show marked affinity to other species investigated in the present work.

The achene in 17 species of the sub-family Ranunculoideae (Ranunculaceae) was morphologically and anatomically studied to show the variation patterns of these two parameters. The surface of the achene and the appearance of the style whether normal and plumose or in the form of a beak were found to be delimitrate to the taxa studied. SEM investigation of the pericarp showed that six types of surface sculpture were recorded and the reticulate type was subdivided into six sub-types. Stress was laid upon the achene vasculature for suggesting a phylogenetic status for the studied taxa. It was concluded that less advanced taxa are those having increased number of vascular bundles (8-12 bundles). Intermediate taxa are those with three vascular bundles; one dorsal and two distinct ventral bundles. More advanced taxa are those with one dorsal and two fused ventral bundles.

No abstract

No abstract