ABSTRACT
THE ASSORTMENT OF LAND PLANTS Flowering plants, or angiosperms (1, 2), dominate large areas of the land surface and represent the climax of vascular plant evolution. They occupy a wide range of habitats and about a quarter of a million species have been recognized so far. However, many more, particularly from tropical regions, await scientific description. Angiosperms are very diversified in their form, and range in size from a few millimetres in diameter in the aquatic Lemna (3) to 90 m or more in height in Eucalyptus (4). Some complete their life cycle in less than 2 months while some specimens of Quercus (oak) may live nearly a thousand years (5).
