Il6 CORDAITEAE. 



is ovoid in form, and its rounded apex rises suddenly into a slender beak- 

 like process, which encloses a narrow canal and has its wall formed of 

 a single layer of large transversely broadened cells. In the apex of the 

 nucellus exactly under the process the canal enlarges into an irregularly 

 rounded cavity, the pollen-chamber as it has been termed, the ' chambre 

 pollinique' of the French author. In this chamber several pollen-grains 

 are to be seen, which exhibit the structural peculiarities known to us from 

 the male flower. In the conducting canal also there are two grains in 

 excellent preservation lying one above the other and quite filling its lumen 

 (Fig. 9, D] l . Of the embryo-sac and its contents there is nothing to be 

 seen. Renault has already pointed out that the flowers of Cordaitae must 

 have been anemophilous ; for unless they secreted a pollen-catching 

 drop after the manner of Taxus, it would be impossible to imagine 

 how the pollen-grains, which are unusually large in proportion to the 

 breadth of the micropyle, could have found their way into the pollen- 

 chamber. I would observe also, that it would almost seem from the 

 figures that the great increase in the transverse breadth of the parietal cells 

 in the base of the beak was intended to diminish the size of the canal, and 

 so prevent the entrance of too many pollen-grains into the pollen-chamber, 

 an arrangement analogous with the closing of the canal of the archegonium 

 in many Archegoniatae after the period of reception is over. 



With regard to the terminology of the envelopes of the female flower, 

 it is evident that we must set out from the principles adopted in the case 

 of Gnetaceae, and especially in that of Ephcdra ; the inner envelope must 

 in all cases be considered to be an integument, while the outer may be 

 regarded either as the perigone, or as a second integument, according as 

 we assent to the determinations of Eichler or of Strasburger, or even as the 

 ovary for which Renault inclines to take it in accordance with Van 

 Tieghem's views. The male flowers it is true are less like the male flowers of 

 Gnetaceae, though Saporta and Marion 2 have compared them with those 

 of Gnetum. Lastly, before turning to the consideration of the ripe seeds 

 it will be necessary to notice a view which Renault 3 has -formulated in the 

 following words : ' It appears then that the pollen-grains were not yet in a 

 condition, when they left the anther, to produce fertilisation, and that they 

 required to remain for a longer or shorter time inside the pollen-chamber, 

 where the cellular division commenced in the anther was completed and 

 resulted in the maturity of the grain.' As Saporta and Marion 4 have 

 taken up this idea and applied it to their own speculative purposes, we 

 must briefly consider the foundations on which it rests. It is pointed 

 out that if the pollen-grains from the anthers are compared with those 



1 Renault (1), t. 17, f. 15. 3 Saporta et Marion (2). 3 Renault (1), p. 310. * Saporta 

 et Marion (2), p. 64. 



