PROLIFEROUS CONES. 



the lobes the rudiment of a bud which in a further stage develops into 

 a shoot bearing- leaves. This form of prolificatioii is not uncommon, 

 and the appearance presented by it in various genera is essentially the 



same. The bracts become more or less 

 leafy and pass gradually into the condition 

 of ordinary leaves, so that the general 

 appearance is as a branch growing through 

 the cone. An instance of this kind of 

 prolification was sent to the author of this 

 work by Captain Xorinan, R.X., of 

 Cheviot House, Berwick-on-Tweed. The 

 axis of a cone of the common Spruce, 

 Picea excelsa, had grown beyond the 

 apex from one to two inches, the prolonged 

 part being clothed with ordinary foliage 

 leaves ; the bracts serially continuous 

 with them below were much modified, 

 differing only from the ordinary foliage 

 leaves in being shorter and thinner ; the 

 scales seated in their axils bore two 

 rudimentary ovules, apparently imperfect 

 as none of them had been fertilised. 



l-'i.u. :;~. Branchlet of Cryptomeriajaponica 



v.ir. Lobbii with proliferous cones. 



In a proliferous Larch cone the 

 woody scales were found to be 

 more or less winged at the sides, 

 notched and bipartite at the apex. 

 Sometimes the lateral lobes of the 

 scales were infolded so as partially 

 to conceal the ovule at the base 

 and suggest the idea of a partially 

 closed carpel. The proliferous cones of AUetia Doufjlasii are chiefly 

 remarkable for the fact that in passing to the leafy state the bracts 

 gradually lose the tricuspidate apex which usually characterises them. 



Fig. 38. A, proliferous Larch cone ; B, leafy 

 bract and seed scale ; c, leafy bract, the scale rudi- 

 mentary ; D E, abnormal scales with traces of 

 ovules. Nat. size. 



