340 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [November 



that the ancestral condition was bisporangiate. The sporophyll 

 resembles that of Pinus, although it is comparatively shorter and 

 broader, and has two abaxial sporangia (fig. i) . Whether it has any 

 aborted sporangia, as reported in the Taxineae, could not be deter- 

 mined. At least when mature it has fewer sporangia than any of the 

 Taxineae; Taxus baccata having seven, Torreya taxi folia four, 

 Cephalotaxus four to two, and Phyllocladus two. 



Male gametophyte 



Material collected November i showed the microspores shed and 

 the sporangia wide open along the whole line of dehiscence. Only 

 three or four sporangia retained a few spores, and therefore the sec- 

 tions did not show many stages. 



The youngest stage found in the development of the microspore 

 was the uninucleate stage (fig. 3), with the wings fully developed. The 

 microspores contain no starch; Coulter and Land (9) found the 

 microspores of Torreya taxijolia rich in starch; Miss Young (20) 

 found starch in the spores of Dacrydium; the body cell of Crypto- 

 meria japonica contains starch grains, according to Lawson (16); 

 Coker (7) found the spores of Podocarpus, during all of the divisions, 

 packed with starch, which disappears just before shedding; Cham- 

 berlain (6) found starch in the spores of Pinus Laricio, and Miss 

 Ferguson (12) in the spores of the species of pine studied by her. 



The first division of the microspore cuts off a prothallial cell, 

 which usually lies against the wall, and which immediately begins to 

 disorganize (fig. 6) . Soon a second prothallial cell is cut off. These 

 two prothallial cells are at first surrounded by delicate walls which 

 very soon disappear, so that when the spore is mature all the four 

 nuclei lie free in the common cytoplasm. The first prothallial cell 

 is commonly evanescent and its nucleus soon disintegrates (figs. 9, 10) ; 

 in two mature spores it was still recognizable (fig. 11). The second 

 prothallial cell always persists, in which respect Phyllocladus is similar 

 to Ginkgo. 



Prothallial cells have heretofore not been reported in any of the 

 Coniferales except Podocarpineae and Abietineae. Coker (7) 

 reports two prothallial cells in Podocarpus, one of which develops 

 further, while the other slowly degenerates. In Podocarpus Totarra 



