STAMIXATE FLOWERS. 



37 



The staminate flowers are collected in dense clusters near the ends 

 of the previous year's shoots. Each flower consists of a central axis 

 around which the stamens are spirally arranged, according to Dodel-Port, 

 in T 5 3 phyllotaxis, the whole flower being of nearly cylindrical shape, of 

 a yellowish brown colour and surrounded at the base by several 

 membraneous, s.cale-like bracts.* Each anther is attached on the under- 

 side to a short filament, or sporophyll as it is sometimes called, 

 inserted on the axis, and which dilates at the apex into a subpeltate 



Fertile branchlet of Su.wyothfm conspiciia. 



expansion or connective analogous to that commonly seen in the 

 anthers of angiospermous plants. This connective varies in shape and 

 size in the different genera, and is the part that is highly coloured 

 in several species, not only of Finns but also of Abies and Picea ; it was 

 called the crest of the anther by the older botanists, and its form in 

 Finns is often a characteristic of species. Each anther has two pollen sacs 



* The number of these involncral bracts varies considerably in the different species 

 of Finns, from 34 in P. sylvcstris to 1015 in P. Lanibertiana. 



