the Male and Female Flowers of Conifers. 305 
exactly the same relation to the leaf-scales on its twig is a strong 
argument in favour of that scale being a petal too. 
If it really be so, then, of course, the bract must be the calyx. 
Its texture (wholly or partially petaloid) is suggestive of no 
character so much as that of part of the floral envelope. 
There is nothing inconsistent with this being the case in the 
bract appearing before the scale: the calyx always precedes the 
corolla in development. But it would be inconsistent with the 
process of development were the scale, if it be a petal, to con- 
tinue increasing in size pari passu with the seed, as it in fact 
appears to do; but the explanation of this srowth may be, that 
it is the disk which grows at the base of the petal. I pointed 
out that the growth of the scale was not equal all over, but took 
place chiefly towards the base; the apophysis, in short, may be 
the outer coat of the petal resting like a mantle on the top of 
the disk which has grown up under it, in the same way that the 
hip of a rose increases in size, bearing up upon its crown the 
decayed rose-petals, only that in the Conifers the substance has 
penetrated between the outer and inner walls of the petal, and 
filled out the space between them. And if we refer back to 
the structure of the scale, as shown in Plate X., we shall see 
that there is nothing in it inconsistent with this notion. The 
scale is composed of two layers, as it were, with an indication of 
an intermediate line running backwards between them from the 
prickle in the midst of the apophysis—in other words, from the 
supposed point of the petal. And if we examine a rose-hip, we 
find it is composed of two layers also, with an intermediate one 
wedged in near the apex, on which the petals and stamens grew. 
In the Conifers the inner layer has a double woody core, like a 
set of branches separated into blades. The rose-hip has a similar 
set of hgneous fibres branching through its inner layer or disk ; 
and what is noteworthy is, that these too are disposed in double 
layers or blades. 
The scale and bract of Cunninghamia Sinensis and Sciadopitys 
verticillata come nearer to the hip of the rose than those of any 
other Conifer which at present occurs to me. In these the 
bract is united to the scale; so that we have the calyx, petal, 
and disk all united, as in the rose, the petal being represented 
by a woolly fringe on the crown of the scale. 
Thus, as we have in some Conifers the bract united to the 
scale, and in others not, it is plain that the union of these dif- 
ferent parts is not essential to the relations of a disk, as indeed 
we know from other facts ; and accordingly in the yew we have 
the other extreme, in which the calyx, petal, and disk are all 
separate and distinct. 
The yew also shows us that although in cone-bearing Conifers 
