The Geography of Phytochemical Races

x Abstract
which biosynthetic step in a given pathway might have been eliminated or altered in
the establishment of a new chemical profi le.
Examples involve a wide assortment of chemical types, and range from the simplest
approach—a comparison of chromatograms—to application of cladistic methodology
to complex sets of chemical structural data. Equally wide is the sampling
of the plant kingdom, with examples including lichens, bryophytes, ferns, fl owering
plants, and conifers. Although the study of conifer chemistry is often limited
to simple compounds of widespread occurrence, we see that statistical analysis of
quantitative data (GLC) provides a powerful means of assessing relationships, as
well as the history of postglacial migrations. Application of statistical analysis to
fl avonoid data has also revealed relationships in a few cases.