392 



GYMNOSPERMS 



THE SPOROPHYTE — REPRODUCTIVE 



Both staminate and ovulate strobili are compound, and are borne 

 in great numbers on branching shoots arising from the rim, just 

 above the leaf groove, although an occasional inflorescence is found 

 below the groove. 



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^ 



/; 





Fig. 369. — Welwitschia mirabilis: part of the crown of an old plant, showing one of 

 the much split leaves and about a dozen branched (lower stalks with staminate strobili 

 at the tips. — From a negative taken by Pk.vrson, January, 1907, on the Nahib Plateau 

 near Walvis Hay, South Africa. The scalpel in the middle of the picture indicates the 



THE STAMINATE STROBILUS 



The stalk, bearing the strobiU, branches more or less dichoto- 

 mously, two, three, or even four times (fig. 369). In January, 1907, 

 when Pearson made the exposure from which this figure was made, 

 pollen was beginning to shed from the lower stamens of the most ad- 

 vanced cones. 



The cones are beautifully geometrical in the arrangement of their 

 parts. Church's"'' drawing of this cone does not exaggerate the 



