120 



CONIFERALES (RECENT) 



[CH. 



in Sciadopitys 1 9. Fig. 686, E represents half a cone of Taxodium 

 in which the distally expanded woody ends of the scales are tightly 

 joined by their edges and form a hard case enclosing as in an 

 ovary several angular seeds, the slender stalks being shrivelled 

 and inconspicuous. The cones of the Cupressineae and Calli- 

 trineae are characterised by a whorled arrangement and a com- 

 paratively small number of the scales. In Cupressus the cones 

 are oval or spherical and each scale bears 620 seeds : in the 

 Callitrineae the cones are valvular (figs. 703, 762, B D) and the 

 scales vary from 2 to 3 in Callitris and from 

 7 to 8 in Widdringtonia. The small cones 

 of Saxegothaea consist of one-seeded mega- 

 sporophylls which become fleshy and par- 

 tially concrescent (fig. 687) ; in Juniperus 

 the strobilus has the appearance of a berry ; 

 in Microcachrys the leaves pass gradually 

 into the single-seeded verticillate megaspo- 

 rophylls, each with two vascular strands 1 

 (fig. 684, T) and an epimatium, a, on one side 

 of the ovule; in the ripe cone the mega- 

 sporophylls are fleshy but not connate as in 

 Saxegothaea 2 . In Dacrydium the megaspo- 

 rophylls differ but slightly from the foliage 

 leaves in some species, e.g. in D. Balansae 

 (fig. 684, P) a single leaf at the apex of a 

 branch bears an ovule partially covered by 

 a hood-like epimatium. In Torreya* a very 

 short shoot in the axil of a leaf bears two 

 bracts and each subtends an ovule and two 

 pairs of bracteoles. The seeds of T. cali- 



fornica, which may be 4 cm. long, are enclosed by a thick integument 

 differentiated into a sarcotesta and sclerotesta surrounding a 

 ruminated endosperm (fig. 688) : there is a ring of vascular bundles 

 at the limit of the free part of the integument and this is regarded 

 by Oliver 4 as homologous with the tracheal plate at the base of 



1 Worsdell (99). 



2 Stiles (08); Noren'(08); Tison (09); Bot. Mag. Tab. 8664 (1916). 



3 Robertson (04) ; (07). 4 Oliver (02) ; (03). 



FIG. 687. Saxeyothaea con- 

 spicua. (After Stiles.) 



