On Whorled Phyllotaxis. I Growth Whorls

Besides my „Beitrage zur Blattstellungslehre” which appear in this same periodical1, I intend to publish a separate series of papers on whorled phyllotaxis. The aim of my'researches will be a double one. In the first place they are a necessary complement of the general studies in phyllotaxis. As I pointed out beforehand2 the wide-spread occurrence of whorls in flowers and in other parts of plants is not to be explained by any theory of phyllotaxis given as yet. In the second place we shall never get a right Insight into the morphology of the flower, which is still the base of systematic botany, unless we get a clear idea of the relations between spiral and whorled arrangements in the flower. It is now nearly a century ago that vonMartius enounced the opinion3 that all floral whorls were in reality spirals. This view has since been shared by nearly all the leading morphologists4; and indeed the common case of a 2/6 calyx is a very convincing argument.