  The globular cluster (GC) systems of the Milky Way and of our neighboring
spiral galaxy, M31, comprise 2 distinct entities, differing in 3 respects. 1.
M31 has young GCs, ages from ~100 Myr to 5 Gyr old, as well as old globular
clusters. No such young GCs are known in the Milky Way. 2. We confirm that the
oldest M31 GCs have much higher nitrogen abundances than do Galactic GCs at
equivalent metallicities. 3. Morrison et al. found M31 has a subcomponent of
GCs that follow closely the disk rotation curve of M31. Such a GC system in our
own Galaxy has yet to be found. These data are interpreted in terms of the
hierarchical-clustering-merging (HCM) paradigm for galaxy formation. We infer
that M31 has absorbed more of its dwarf systems than has the Milky Way. This
inference has 3 implications: 1. All spiral galaxies likely differ in their GC
properties, depending on how many companions each galaxy has, and when the
parent galaxy absorbs them. The the Milky Way ties down one end of this
spectrum, as almost all of its GCs were absorbed 10-12 Gyr ago. 2. It suggests
that young GCs are preferentially formed in the dwarf companions of parent
galaxies, and then absorbed by the parent galaxy during mergers. 3. Young GCs
seen in tidally-interacting galaxies might come from dwarf companions of these
galaxies, rather than be made a-new in the tidal interaction. There is no ready
explanation for the marked difference in nitrogen abundance for old M31 GCs
relative to the oldest Galactic GCs. The predictions made by Li & Burstein
regarding the origin of nitrogen abundance in globular clusters are consistent
with what is found for the old M31 GCs compared to that for the two 5 Gyr-old
M31 GCs.
