Morphology at the Rijksherbarium

In the following the role of morphology, anatomy and palynology in systematics at the Rijksherbarium will be discussed, as far as flowering plants are concerned. It will be demonstrated that most of the research in this field is rooted in the interest of individual workers, and that no planning was involved until recently. The scope of it varied, as it was done either for pure taxonomic purposes, or for systematic and phylogenetic reasons, or for its own merit. Chiefly, I think, the study of morphology s.l. originated because Suringar, Hallier, Lotsy, and especially Lam, were interested in achieving a more natural or evolutionary system of the Angiosperms. Lotsy and Lam extended their interest to the other Cormophytes as well. In 1895 W. F. R. Suringar published a booklet which was intended as a summary of his lectures. His idea was that the tree of natural affinities could be a preparation and a guide to a real genealogical tree. He pictured this tree with a number of main branches, each of them bearing a number of ramification systems. He adorned this tree with a winding red line connecting groups of plants from different ramification systems. Formerly these groups had been arranged in a linear sequence of increasing complexity by A. P. de Candolle.