RANALES 399 



SO completely as in E. laurina, and the food bodies are stalked, capitate 

 bodies scattered over the margins and surfaces (Fig. 69G). 



Germination of the pollen, development of the tube, and structure of 

 the embryo sac are unknown. The embryo is small, and the endosperm 

 is ruminate — apparently an ancient character. 



The leaves are pinnately veined and develop conduplicately folded, 

 remaining so until well grown, a character found also in Himantandra. 



Anatomy. The foliar nodes are multilacunar, with 7 to 11 traces. The 

 stamen has five to seven traces in E. laurina, three in E. bennettii; the 

 carpel has several traces. In some of the stamens of E. laurina, the 

 vascular bundles of the broad filament show, in addition to a median 

 series, a dorsal inverted bundle, which is sometimes double. The pres- 

 ence of the occasional inverted bundles on the dorsal side is apparently 

 the result of differential displacement and distortion of tissues in the 

 phylogenetic narrowing of the sporophyll — an anatomical modification 

 shown more clearly in the Nymphaeaceae. An adaxial position of the 

 microsporangia is important in pollination in this genus, because, in the 

 open flower, the stamens are strongly reflexed (frontispiece). 



The wood is probably the most primitive among vessel-bearing angio- 

 sperms; the vessel elements are very long and long- tapering, with 

 scalariform perforations over long, oblique ends in great numbers — 

 from thirty to more than one hundred. And these perforations differ 

 from the scalariform pits of the rest of the cell only in the absence of a 

 closing membrane. The similarity of these vessel elements to those of 

 Pteridium is close. The fibers have round, bordered pits; there are no 

 libriform fibers. A histological character known elsewhere in the Ranales 

 only in the Myristicaceae is the presence in the pith of a tanniniferous 

 secretory system of branching tubes. The secondary phloem is "soft"; it 

 is not stratified and fibers are absent. The sieve elements are long and 

 slender, with slowly tapering ends. In contrast with these primitive 

 characters in vascular tissues is the specialized, multilacunar node. 



Summary. When all known characters are considered, Eupomatia is 

 seen to be one of the most primitive living angiosperms. The flower has 

 no perianth; protection before anthesis is by a bud scale. Sterile stamens 

 serve as a corolla, but this "corolla" is above the stamens. The bracts of 

 the peduncle, the calyptra, and the sporophylls and staminodia form a 

 continuous spiral. The connation of spirally arranged organs is rare and 

 remarkable where the number of organs is large. (Examples with fewer 

 carpels are Himantandra, Zygogyniwi, and Berberis.) The stamens, 

 with poorly differentiated anthers, have a flat filament and a protruding 

 connective. The carpels resemble those of Degeneria and Drimijs (sec- 

 tion Tasmannia) in their decurrent stigma and unfused margins. (The 

 connation of the carpels appears to restrict the entrance of pollen tubes 



