The intention of this serial of review papers covering the various branches of botany is firstly to offer the authors a freedom to express opinions and to speculate as widely as they dare upon future trends, and secondly to offer the classical- and modern-minded readers at least a possibility to dip into each other’s pages so that each may appreciate the other and learn ‘what it is all about’ (Preston, in the preface to Volume I). The present reviewers are engaged in the field of plant morphology and anatomy, to which the last paper of this volume belongs, namely the excellent contribution by P. B. Tomlinson on Monocotyledons (mainly arborescent forms). Tomlinson presents a lively picture of the ‘habit’, vascularization, inflorescence, etc. in these plants, which were much neglected by one-sided temperate approach during decades. He does so by adding many functional details and by always considering the development of these structures. Especially his scheme for the construction of the stem in the palm Rhapis presents a reliable demonstration based on exact observations.