i 9 i S ] AASE—MEGASPOROPHYLLS OF CONIFERS 279 



a reduced branch system, or the large number of ovules is a new 

 feature. 



RADAIS (2) in 1804 made a rather intensive study of a number 

 of cones of the Abietineae and Taxodineae. He notes that the 

 bundles to bract and scale are distinct in origin in the Abietineae, 

 Sciadopitys, and some of the Taxodineae, as Cryptomeria, Taxodium, 

 and Sequoia, and how this distinctness is on its way to obliteration 

 in species of Arthrotaxis and more so in Cunninghamia, and is lost 

 in Araucaria Rulci. 



Worsdell (10, n) in i8qo made a comparative study of types 

 from the different tribes. He believes that in the megasporophyll 

 in all conifers there is an axillary structure concerned. Speaking 

 of Araucaria he says: 



Holding to the theory of the axillary bud as the explanation of the structure 

 of the appendage of the cone in Araucaria, I believe, with Celakovsky, that 

 the ligule represents the seminiferous scale which is itself the vegetatively 

 developed outer integument of a sporangium situated in the anterior position 

 on an axillary bud. This outer integument has become almost completely 

 fused with the subtending bract in Araucaria, completely so in Agathis. 



Concerning the Taxeae and Podocarpeae he says: 



The Taxeae differ from the other groups in the fact that the sporangia 

 occur in a position terminal instead of lateral to the axis on which they are 

 borne. The anatomy points clearly to the fact that no axial foliar appendage 

 of any kind exists upon which the sporangia are inserted, the cylinder of the 

 axis being directly continuous into the base of I he sporangium. This latter 

 difference, however, amounts to very little if we regard, with Celakovsky, 

 the seminiferous scale of the other groups as being the morphological equivalent 

 of the outer integument of the Taxeae, which has become, with the exception 

 of Podocarpeae, vegetatively developed. In the Podocarpeae the relationship 

 is precisely the same as in the Taxeae, with the exception of the axillary instead 

 of terminal position of the sporangium. In this order the bundle system belong- 

 ing to the sporangium (which is in all the other groups the sole representative 

 of the sporophyll according to the view I here adopt) becomes obvious, owing 

 to the fact that the latter gets by the basal intercalary growth on to the upper 

 part of the bract. In the four other groups the bundle system pertaining to 

 the vegetative development of their outer integuments, which, in the form of 

 the widely expanded seminiferous scale, possesses a pronounced vascular tissue. 



Seward and Ford (3) in 1906, in a somewhat extensive article 

 on living and fossil Araucarineae, offer no interpretation of the 



