152 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxvii. 



to it, and variously judged by morphologists. R. Brown 

 held that the cone-scale was formed by two open carpellary 

 leaves or ovuliferous leaves, while by other authors 

 (A. Braun, etc.) it was interpreted as a placental protuber- 

 ance of the bract bearing the ovules. Professor Parlatore 

 and others explained the cone-scale as a floral branch born 

 in the axil of the bract. Professor Delpino held that the 

 cone-scale was an ovuliferous member formed by coalescence 

 of the two margins of the bract, according to his theory on 

 Antispermia. In a short note presented to the Botanical 

 Congress at Paris in 1878, I expressed the opinion that the 

 cone-scale of Conif erales x would be a member intermediate 

 between the branch and the leaf, which I named Clado- 

 phyllum, corresponding to the Cladodium of Kunth. The 

 cone-scale had been also called Synphyllodium 2 by Cela- 

 kovsky, but this name seems to me not suitable, because the 

 term Phyllodium is appropriated to the case of a petiole 

 imitating the blade of a leaf, and the cone-scale is not 

 formed by stalks of leaves only, but also by a part of an 

 axis or branch. Some of these cone -scales in our plant 

 presented a seed in the middle part, but these seeds, though 

 furnished with a hard and woody shell surrounding a 

 reddish tissue, were without embryo or empty. As we 

 have not in our garden a male specimen, it was not 

 possible to obtain seeds with embryos and capable of 

 reproduction. 



It is interesting to remark that near this female 

 specimen grows a male plant of Araucaria brasiliana, 

 A. Rich., more than forty years old, which flowers every 

 year, but the sterility of the seeds obtained would show 

 that the pollen of that plant is not able to fertilise our 

 A. Bidivillii and produce a hybrid; however, it is not 

 prudent to judge by a single case in so difficult a question. 

 As this pollen was perfectly developed and fertilised the 

 female flowers of another specimen of A. brasiliana placed 

 at a little distance, with production of numerous progeny, 



1 "Congres intern, de Botanique tenn a Paris," 16-24 aout 1878, 

 Paris, 1880, p. 38. 



2 Celakovsky, L. J., " Nene Beitrage zura Verstandniss der Frucht- 

 schnppe der Coniferen" ("Jahr. fur wiss. Botanik, begr. von Professor 

 N. Pringsheim," xxxv., Leipzig, 1900, pp. 407-448). 



