55 



pushed up considerably above the insertion of the middle one. 

 This is due to basal growth. 



In 1875 0. Beccari studied the development of Gnetum Gne- 

 mon L. in Ternate. His results were published two years later 

 but are dated, Ottobre 1875 Ternate'). He states that Gn. 

 Gnemon has two kinds of spikes male and female ones. The 

 female ones possess no traces of male flowers while the male 

 ones contain female flowers which, at first sight, one might 

 consider to be equal to those of the female spikes. He confirms 

 Strasburger's researches which showed that the complete fe- 

 male flowers have three envelops while the incomplete ones 

 have but two. 



The youngest female spike which Beccari could examine was 

 4 — 6 millimeter long. The upper part of it is pictured in his 

 fig. 1. Four to eight flowers develop generally on every inter- 

 node of such a young spike; they are surrounded by hairs 

 shaped like paraphyses. In this stage the flower is more or 

 less globe-shaped and is surrounded by an envelop which is 

 open at the top (compare fig. 2, PL VII Beccari). Though 

 younger stages were not observed and consequently Beccari 

 can not be sure, he thinks that this envelop arises from two 

 distinct parts, which during growth are concrescent, so that 

 only the tips remain free. Soon afterwards a ringwall arises 

 at the base of the nucleus , inside of the outer envelop and 

 though Beccari did not notice traces of a division in it he yet 

 considers it arisen from two appendices, which alternate with 

 the hypothetical appendices forming the outer envelop and 

 which by concrescence also obtained the shape of a ringwall 

 (compare Beccari's fig. 4, 5, PL VII). Although a rudiment of 

 this second envelop is visible in the very young female flowers 

 of the male stalks (Beccari fig. 10c) it does not develop any 

 further and but a faint trace of it is seen in the adult female 

 flower of the pseudo-androgynous spikes (Becc. fig. lie). 



1) 0. Beccari. Delia organogenia dei fiori feminei del Gnetum Gnemon L. Nota. 

 Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiana 1877, p. 91—99. Tarolo VII. 



