5i8 



PHANEROGAMS. 



Pinus) the seminiferous scales (Fig. 353, A, B, s) appear to be axillary striiclures 

 in the axils of bracts (c) which sprinyj from the axis of the cone ; but the exami- 

 nation of very young cones of Adi'es peclinata shows that the seminiferous scale 

 itself arises as a protuberance at the base of the bract (r), and is therefore not 

 axillary. While the bract afterwards grows very little or not at all, this protuber- 

 ance increases greatly, and produces on its upper surface two ovules which are 



attached to it by one side with the micropylc 

 towards the axis of the cone. The seminiferous 

 scale of these genera must therefore be con- 

 sidered as a greatly developed placenta growing 

 out of a carpel (Fig. 353 A, B, c) which is very 

 small or even abortive ^ According to this view 

 the whole cone is a single flower with a number 

 of small open carpels (hilherLo considered as 

 bracts), which are far outstripped in their growth 

 by their seminiferous placentae (the scales). In 

 the other Abietineae also, the female flowers of 

 which 1 have had no opportunity of examining, 

 it may be concluded from the descriptions that 

 the cone is a single flower with numerous semi- 

 niferous scales arranged spirally, not springing 

 from the axils of leaves, but growing imme- 

 diately out of the axis of the cone, and therefore 

 themselves leaves and of a carpellary nature. 

 Eichler (/. c.) says, in reference to Dammara, 

 Cunninghamia, Arthrotaxis, and Sequoia: — 'The 

 scales of a cone are in these genera all of one 

 kind; they consist simply of open carpels; and, 

 in order not to introduce confusion into the 

 definition of a flower, the whole of what is found 

 on the axis, in other words the whole cone, must 

 be considered a single flower; and this is also 

 necessary in the case of the Araucarieas, the 

 Cupressineae, and the male 'catkins' of all Coni- 

 ferae^' In Araucaria each scale (or carpel) 

 bears only a single ovule, which, according to 

 Eichler, is so enveloped by it that the only 



Fig. 353.— ^^jfj- pectinata (after Schacht). A a 

 leaf detached from the female floral axis seen from 

 above, with the seminiferous scale j bearing the 

 ovules sk (magnified) ; B upper part of the female 

 flower (or cone) in the mature state ; sp floral axis or 

 axis of the cone, fits leaves, j the largely developed 

 seminiferous scales ; C a ripe seminiferous scale 

 with the two seeds sa, f the wing of the seed 

 (reduced). 



^ Biaun, Caspary, and Eichler consider the seminiferous scale in Pinus, and Larix as itself a 

 flower; i. e. as a short axis which has coalesced with its two carpels and stands in the axil of the bract 

 {c in our figure). In that case the cone of these genera, in contradistinction to that of the other 

 Coniferse and of Cycadese, would be an inflorescence {cf. Caspary in Ann. des Sci. Nat. 4th series, 

 vol. XIV, p. 200, and Flora, 1862, p. 377) ; but this view I have already contested more in detail in 

 my first edition, p. 427. It is impossible to consider the seminiferous scale o{ Phms and Abies itself 

 as a single carpel. In opposition also to the most recent views of Mohl (Bot. Zeitg. 187 1, p. 22, and 

 of Strasbuiger), I cannot bring myself to consider the seminiferous scale of the true Abietineae as a 

 coherent structure formed of two leaves of an undeveloped branch. 



^ Eichler thinks that an exception must be made in favour of Podocarpus and Cephalolaxus. 



