the Male and Female Flowers of Conifers. 215 
the petaloid texture is very obvious: when the cone is mature, the 
petal has been converted into a film or crust. In the pines the 
petal takes the form of a small stiff bract, which in some is very 
plain in the mature cone, in others less so, or more or less 
squeezed or obliterated by the pressure of the surrounding 
scales. 
Another evidence that this bract is the petal is the fact that, 
as in other flowers, it appears first, and remains for a short 
time before the seeds or their envelopes begin to show them- 
selves. It is, no doubt, persistent both in the male and female 
flowers; but we have plenty of other flowers with persistent 
petals; and although it does not fall off at the same stage as in 
most other flowers, we can estimate the termination of its flower- 
ing by the appearance of the parts connected with the fructifi- 
cation inside of it. 
In other plants the seeds are developed within the petal or 
petals, and their envelopes take their place in a determinate 
order or series of concentric layers. That order, I think, is pre- 
served in the Conifers; and I shall first contrast the layers or 
envelopes which encircle the seed in ordinary dicotyledonous 
plants with what I consider the same parts in Conifers, and 
then take each of the parts separately and endeavour to show 
that they are what I suppose them to be. The envelopes, be- 
ginning with the petal and looking inwards, then, are as fol- 
lows :— 
In ordinary 
dicotyledonous plants. In Conifers. 
1. Outermost envelope a" Petal. renee 
its appendages. 
2. Next envelope. Disk. Scale. 
3. First covering of fruit. Pericarp. | Wing of seed. 
4. Second ditto. Mesocarp. poles #e pabpeice at yiceH 
3 and 5. 
5. Third ditto. Endocarp. Testa. 
The remaining envelopes of the nucleus of the ovule in the 
Conifers (primine, secundine, &c.) in no respect differ in appear- 
ance or function from those of other seeds, and therefore need 
not be specially noticed. 
An examination of the above parts shows nothing inconsistent 
with the above distribution of function which I have assigned to 
those of the Conifers. 
l. The Scale. 
As with the stamens growing on the inferior margin of the 
male petal, the ovary takes its rise on the inferior margin of the 
female petal. Physiologically, perhaps its ultimate origin is to 
be referred further back; but this is the point where it comes 
