(LEX) Containment Hierarchies

[P. F. Stevens]

When one starts to "spread" morphological databases in botany one runs into
innumerable problems, as I think I mentioned some time ago.  In this case,
thinking of monocots and "dicots", will we allow monocots to have stipules?
What do we do with the intravaginal squamules of many Alismatales which, as
far as I can see, are colleters under another name?  But why should they
not have a different name, since they are likely of independent origin from
colleters in dicots?  But, if one takes that tack, can we use the terms
haplostemony and diplostemony in monocots, as Ronse Decraene questioned in
a monocot symposium volume about four years ago?  Indeed, do monocots ever
have sepals or petals?  Why should "hypogeal" and "epigeal" mean different
things for monocot and dicot seedlings?

These are not insoluble problems, but I have seen no recent discussions on
how to clarify botanical terminology, although I think that this is
definitely needed - and it needs to be an international effort, not least
because we can have the same botanical term meaning different things in
different languages (I think "crassinucellate" is an example).

Peter S.