Number Seven De cember 1978 Ro al Bot anic Charles Je ffrey , Edi t or , Herbarium , y Gardens , Kew , Ri chmond , Surrey TW9 BAB , U . K . Financial support o f the NEWSLETTER is generously provi ded by Ot to Koel t z - P . O . 1 60 624 . Ant i quariat , Box 3 , Koenigst ein Taunus , B R D BOOK REVIEW THE BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY OF THE COMPOS ITAE , edit ed by V . H . Heywood , J . B . Harborne and B . L . Turner , Academi c Press , LO n don , New York and £ 118 in m 1 San Franc i sc o , 55 . Pp . 9 ( two volu es ) . 977 . A brie f ac count o f ail the genesi s o f thi s work was given in t he last n In the openi g chapt er , the edi t ors give a bri e f hist ory o f t he t axonomy o f the family , c onsider i t s vari at ion in t erms o f adaptat i on t o habit at s and pollinat ors and review it s chemistry in relat ion t o it s ec on omi c import anc e and the role o f me tabolit es as chemi cal de fence mechani sms . Turner gives an ac count o f i t s meagre fossil hist ory and it s phyt ogeography , c ons idering the family t o be po ssibly mid-Cret aceous in origin and explaining i t s present dist ribut i on in t erms o f c ont inental dri ft and rapid adapt ive radiat i on from Mi oc ene t imes onwards . Burt t relat es much o f the diversit y observed in involucre , fl ore t and frui t types t o selec t ive pressures involving m poll inat i on e chanisms , bree ding syst ems , ovary prot ec t i on , and seed dispersal . Leppik shows t hat t he pat tern o f evolut ionary modi ficat ion o f t he capitulum in relat ion t o t he sensory percept ion o f pollen ve ct ors parallels t hat exhib it ed by sin gle flowers . Je ffrey speculat es on t he possible evolut i onary impli cat i ons o f t he oc currence o f t he bilabiat e c orolla type . St ebbins evaluat es t he evolut ionary signi ficanc e o f studi e s in comparat ive development and func t i onal anat omy . I t i s un fortunat e t hat he has c hosen a taxonomi cally unsat i s fac t ory Senec io sensu lat o on whi ch t o base in part hi s argument in favour o f a shrubby ancestry for the Composi tae , for as a result , t he stat ement s he makes wit h respect t o t he genus so c ircumscribed are wi thout signi fi canc e for the argument e it her way . No clear a ffini ty wit h any other family i s c oncluded from t he admi t t edly equivocal evidenc e , and i t i s c onsi dered all t he spe c iali zat ions o f t he Composi t ae except for t he gamope talous c orolla evolved independent ly o f Baa o e similar spe c iali zat ions in other famil ies . g breaks int erest ing new ground in considering microcharac t ers o f t he ligule epidermi s in relat ion t o pollinat i on llum heliant hoid enec ionoid b iology and taxonomy ; Eri o h and Arni ca are , not s , 2 . Pollen morphology in the Composit ae and some postulat ed relat ed families is revi ewed in a long paper by Skvar l a e t al . Of t he types o f exine ultrast ructure anth moid exhib it ed by t he Composi t ae , only t hat designat ed e is approached by any o f t hese other famili es , it s c ommon possession doubtless a ple s iomorphy H nni ian A th moid an themoid i n t in t he e g sense . n e or modi fie d pollen s ' e wit in Gor t eriinae Tarc honan thinae Er ioc e halus Osmit o s is Er iachaenium , , p , p , , Aden ocaul on G arrhena , ymn and t he Ant hemi deae i t sel f , while the apparently progressively more derived s enec ionoid and helian thoid types charact eri ze t he Heliant heae Hel enieae Eu tor ieae Cal en dul eae As t er eae In ul eae , , pa , , , and S ene c ion eae Elachant hus Cerat o e I s o e t o s is , as well as Cent ipeda , , gyn , p , l n Abr o tan e la , Ursinia and , i n modi fied form , the Ac t ot idi ae and Cat ananche . S olbr ig shows t hat t he chromosome cyt ology o f abou t if3 o f the family is known ; even so , t he sample i s far from uni formly represent at ive o f all t ribes and genera and other aspect s o f cyt ology are much more poorly known . The abundance o f secondary metaboli t es in Composit ae i s emphasi zed by He nauer g , who discusses t he distribut ion in t he family o f members o f charact eri st i c ubiquit ous and ot her import ant classes o f c ompounds . The sesqui terpene lact ones are di scussed in more detail by Herz , who emphasi zes the signi fi cance for chemot axonomy o f knowledge o f t he biosynt het i c relat i onships Eu at or ieae He liantheae He len ie ae o f compounds . The af finity o f t he p , and i s h emphasi zed by t he ir possessi on o f eliangiol ide s , also recorded from Peuc e 11 h lian olide h while t he possess ion o f e s links Arni ca , Balduina , Ps il ot rophe wit h Helenium and Gaillardia ; Part henium and Part henic e show obvious af finity wit h t he Ambr os iinae . Flavonoid variat ion , revi ewed by Harborne , appears to have great er t axonomi c s igni fi cance at generic - and lower t han at t ribal and subtribal levels . Re s c orcin ol based chalc ones and aurone s are c haract eri st i c o f C or eogs idinae and a few ot her members o f the H lian th eae He len i a e and e e . The flavonoid syndrome o f t he Composit ae is unl ike t hat o f any o f the famil ies postulat ed as closely relat ed t o it . Polyac e tylene s (revi ewe d by Sorensen ) occur in all t ribes o f t he family and t he ab ility t o i synthesi ze t hem is probably anc est ral . While cr e penyn c ac id derived poly ac etylenes are also developed in Pit t osporaceae , Araliaceae , Umbelli ferae and Campanulac eae , in the Compositae they are charact eri zed by the presenc e o f cycli c , aromat ic or het ero cycli c end groups . Two dist inc t groups o f tribes H l anth a are t he e i e e Hel enieae In ul eae on the one hand , and the Ant hemideae t ( except Cent i eda sand As e reae on t he other , although polyac e tyl enes are absent m from some austral genera , e . g . Vit t adina , Minur ia , Olearia , C el is ia , east ern Elachanthus Is oe t o s is Abr ot an ell a . Australian Brachycome , and from , p and Dit hiin Eu t or ieae Helian theae Hel enieae . c ompounds are restri ct ed t o pa , and Pharmaceut i cal and ec onomi c uses o f t he Compositae are considere d by Wagner in t he final general chapt er ; i t s ec onomic pot ent ial is far from being fully exploite d . There follow t ribal revi ews , st art ing with an almost complet e reworking o f Eu t orieae t he t axonomy o f the pg by King and Robinson , very welcome in vi ew o f t he very unsat is fact ory generi c t reatment o f Bent ham and o f t he important weedy er atum Aust r oeu at or ium Chr omolaena spec ies in Agerat ina , ég , p , Ayapana , , Fl e is chmann ia Heb clinum . Is ocar rmum idesmia , e and Mikania #ha , Mi cros , Le and Ilt is ia Ad no t Sene c ioneae c r it ot hamnus are ac cept ed int o t he tribe , e s les ( s , Mar s hall ia and Pala foxia (all Hel iant heae are not . The chemi st ry o f the t ribe , reviewed by D om1 ngue z , has obvious t axonomic pot ential but is at present t oo li tt le known . The t axonomy o f the Vernonieae , reviewed by Jones , is st ill in an unrevi sed st at e and our chemical knowledge o f i t , as shown by Harborne and Williams , is also very inc omplet e .