GYNCECITJM OF GYMNOSPERMS. 



271 



559 



connective : sometimes these sacs or cells are two, and the organ 

 evidently homologous with an ordinary stamen : often they are 

 more numerous (from 

 three to twent}*) and 

 variously disposed. 



508. The Yew Fam- 

 ily (Taxineae) is next to 

 Gnetaceae in structure. 

 It is generally ranked as 

 a suborder of Coniferae, 

 but it may claim to be a distinct order. The gyncecium is a 

 naked ovule, terminating a stem, 1 and surrounded by several 

 bracts. After fertilization, an outgrowth of the 

 receptacle (or a kind of disk, 394) makes its 

 appearance as a ring girding its base : this 

 grows in height and thickness, and becomes a 

 soft-fleshy cup, imitating a hollow berry, in 

 the bottom of which the stony-coated seed 

 nestles. (Fig. 554-557.) Very similar is the 

 gyncecium of Torreya, except that the cup- 

 shaped disk develops almost simultaneously 

 with the ovules, and as it grows becomes adnate 

 to the large seed in the form of a 

 fleshy coating. In the Gingko, two 

 or more similar ovules are nakedly 

 developed on a naked peduncle, un- 

 accompanied even by a bract (Fig. 

 558) , and one or more of these ripens 

 into the berry-like seed, Fig. 559. 

 In Podocarpus there are some sub- 

 tending bracts, and the naked ovule 



1 It does not therefore follow that the ovule is a part of the axis, or is 

 terminal in the sense of being its direct continuation. In this regard it may 

 be only what the pistil of a Cherry is, which to all appearance is equally a 

 terminal production, but is really the representative of the last leaf of the 

 axis. If so, that leaf is here suppressed to the utmost, and replaced by 

 what is ordinarily its outgrowth, the ovular nucleus and its coat. The 

 structure of Podocarpus favors this interpretation. 



FIG. 558. Female flowers of Gingko biloba or Salisburia adiantifolia. 558. Portion 

 of the same enlarged. After Strasburger. 559. A drupaceous seed of the same, in 

 vertical section, exhibiting the mature disk which forms the flesh, the crustaceous seed- 

 coat, within which is the kernel of the seed; at the base on one side a sterile ovule is 

 seen. After Decnisne. 



FIG. 560. Female flower of Podocarpus (an ovule inverted on a column or elevated 

 support), subtended by bracts. After Eichler. 



FIG. 561. Magnified vertical section of a similar flower of Podocarpus. After 

 Strasburger. 



