222 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



— 5 



nearly globular, with a slender style, and indistinctlj^ three-ribbed ; 

 whilst those of C. iniumescens are elongated and sharply triangular, 

 with concave facets.'' — A. P. M. 



The Gymnospekmy of Conifer.e. — A paper in Flora for June, 1879, 

 nos. 17 and 18, bears this title and is written by Dr L. Celakovsky. 

 In the Am. Journal for October, it is reviewed by Drs. Engelmann 

 and Gray, as follows: Celakovsky, who takes a high position as a 

 morphological botanist, mentions that in the year 1874, he published 

 in Flora an article opposing gymnospermy. He now announces that 

 he has changed his opinion, having satisfied himself of the truth of 

 this doctrine. The agent of conversion was a monstrosity of the 

 Norway Spruce cone, like that from which Stengel made out the now 

 accepted morphology of the cone, and the same monstrosity as that 

 which Braun studied in the Larch, deducing from it the accepted doc- 

 trine many years ago. The essential point in this monstrosity is that 

 the bracts of the abnormal catkin develop into leaves, and the car- 

 pellary scale before it into a pair of leaves transverse to the bract. 

 The abietinous carpel consists of these two leaves united by their 

 posterior edges (/. c, those next the axis of the cone) into a scale, 

 the back of which therefore faces the axis of the cone, and bears the 

 ovules. The lower part of these catkins is usually normal, the apex 

 by prolification is gradually transformed in the manner here specilied, 

 and becomes a leafy branch. Dr. Engelmann, in this Journal, three 

 years ago, gave a confirmatory account of an analogous monstrosity 

 in the Hemlock Sjiruce, but in which the transformation was at the 

 base of the cone, the lower bracts leaf-like and wath a pair of leaves 

 in their axil, the following bracts more and more scale-likS, the gem- 

 inate leaves in their axil were partially united, next forming a scale 

 with a cleft or notched apex, then an entire carpellary scale, in the 

 axil of a normal bract. 



Celakovsky, having now seen the Spruce monstrosity for himself, 

 adopts the inevitable conclusion, and applies it w^ell to the settling 

 of the question of gymnospermy. He declares that the dorsal origin 

 of the ovules of the Abietrneif proves that it is no axillary production, 

 and thus the main support of those who take the ovule for a simpli- 

 fied female flower falls to the ground. Moreover, the ovules of Con- 

 iferse in retrograde metamorphosis never change into shoots, but 

 simply disappear. If flowers, they would be expected sometimes to 

 become foliaceous branchlets. So Celakovsky regards it as demon- 

 strated that they are outgrowths from the dorsal face of the leaf, an- 



