GNETALES— WELWITSCHIA 



393 



regularity (fig. 370). In the lower part of the middle cone the flowers 

 are pushing out beyond their subtending bracts and, especially in 

 the middle row, the six stamens can be seen on the rim of the stami- 

 nate tube, with the funnel-shaped end of the integument in the 

 center of each group of stamens. 



Fig. 370. — Welwitschia tnirabilis: one complete strobilus and parts of two others: 

 X5.2. — After Church. '3- 



The arrangement of the flowers is strictly cycHc. Two opposite 

 bracts alternate with two opposite bracts at right angles to them, 

 throughout the entire cone, and in the axil of each bract, except a 

 few at the base, is a single flower. More than any other feature, this 

 flower has been called upon to link the Gnetales with the angio- 

 sperms. Its floral diagram might well pass for that of an angiosperm 

 flower (fig. 371). The decussate arrangement of bracts in the cone is 



