272 
pyle being directed towards the base of the subtending 
bract. Nucellus and integument are fused together, where- 
as around this an outer envelopment is found, having 
already several names and to which different meanings 
are attributed. 
According to Pilger (117) this organ is an epimatium 
ein Excrescenz des Carpides” (p. 16); others Brooks 
and Stiles (27), Coulter and Chamberlain (51) 
Schumann (131) Worsdell (175) call it a second inte- 
gument, whilst a third view has been given by Bertrand 
(21) and Gibbs (67), in comparing it with the ovuliferous 
scale of the Pinaceae. Bertrand (21) says of this ,, Des 
Abiétinées propement dites aux T'axinées proprement dites 
en passant par les Saxe-Gothea et les Podocarpus, nous 
avous pu suivre une tendance générale de l'écaille ovulifère 
à embrasser, en le recouvrant comme un capuchon, l'ovule 
ou les ovules qu'elle porte, à leur adhérer de plus en plus, 
et finalement à se confondre avec le tégument ovulaire 
dans les Torreya et les Cephalotaxus” (p. 68). 
For the present Ï will use here the name epimatium, 
this being the most neutral one, lateron in the discussion 
Ï will return to it. So the epimatium is entirely bent round 
the ovule and for a short distance in the apical region 
free from the integument. 
According to Pilger there is a scale of gradual trans- 
ition amongst the Podocarpoideae as regards the coales- 
cence of sporophyll, epimatium and ovule. 
In Microcachrys and Saxegothaea the ovule hangs on 
the sporophyll, with the micropyle directed towards the 
base of it and the outside is loosely enveloped by the 
epimatium. Both ovule and epimatium are fixed indepen- 
dently on the sporophyll. 
Various species of Dacrydium form an intermediate stage 
towards the case of Podocarpus, the ovule namely has 
been replaced here from the sporophylil to the epimatium, 
