INFERIOR OVARY AND GENERIC AFFINITIES OF GARRYA

Characters of the inflorescence and flower distinguish 2 sections in Garrya. Female flowers of sect. Garrya bear 2 small epigynous appendages, usually considered a rudimentary perianth. In sect. Fadyenia, female flowers are nude, but occasionally 2 more or less foliaceous bracts are partially adnate to the ovary, sometimes simulating the appearance of appendages in sect. Garrya. Authors who have observed this infer that the adnate bracts are homologous to epigynous appendages in sect. Garrya and that the ovary, therefore, cannot be considered inferior. This inference, if valid, would weigh against a close relationship between Garrya and Cornaceae. Clearing and sectioning show, however, that the vascular pattern in flowers of sect. Garrya is similar to the pattern in many Cornaceae. Perianth bundles are united with ventral carpellaries for most of their length, whereas bundles of the adnate bracts in sect. Fadyenia are associated with dorsal carpellary strands; therefore, the 2 kinds of appendages are not homologous. In gynoecial characters Garrya most closely resembles Griselinia and, to a lesser extent, A ucuba. These 3 genera probably had a common origin within the Cornaceae.