the Male and Female Flowers of Conifers. 305 



exactly the same relation to the leaf-scales on its twig is a strong 

 argument in favour of that scale being a petal too. 



If it really be so, then, of course, the bract must be the calyx. 

 Its texture (wholly or partially petaloid) is suggestive of no 

 character so much as that of part of the floral envelope. 



There is nothing inconsistent with this being the case in the 

 bract appearing before the scale : the calyx always precedes the 

 corolla in development. But it would be inconsistent with the 

 process of development were the scale, if it be a petal, to con- 

 tinue increasing in size pari passu with the seed, as it in fact 

 appears to do ; but the explanation of this growth may be, that 

 it is the disk which grows at the. base of the petal. I pointed 

 out that the growth of the scale was not equal all over, but took 

 place chiefly towards the base ; the apophysis, in short, may be 

 the outer coat of the petal resting like a mantle on the top of 

 the disk which has grown up under it, in the same way that the 

 hip of a rose increases in size, bearing up upon its crown the 

 decayed rose-petals, only that in the Conifers the substance has 

 penetrated between the outer and inner walls of the petal, and 

 filled out the space between them. And if we refer back to 

 the structure of the scale, as shown in Plate X., we shall see 

 that there is nothing in it inconsistent with this notion. The 

 scale is composed of two layers, as it were, with an indication of 

 an intermediate line running backwards between them from the 

 prickle in the midst of the apophysis — in other words, from the 

 supposed point of the petal. And if we examine a rose-hip, we 

 find it is composed of two layers also, with an intermediate one 

 wedged in near the apex, on which the petals and stamens grew. 

 In the Conifers the inner layer has a double woody core, like a 

 set of branches separated into blades. The rose-hip has a similar 

 set of ligneous fibres branching through its inner layer or disk ; 

 and what is noteworthy is, that these too are disposed in double 

 layers or blades. 



The scale and bract of Cunninghamia Sinensis and Sciadopitys 

 verticillata come nearer to the hip of the rose than those of any 

 other Conifer which at present occurs to me. In these the 

 bract is united to the scale ; so that we have the calyx, petal, 

 and disk all united, as in the rose, the petal being represented 

 by a woolly fringe on the crown of the scale. 



Thus, as we have in some Conifers the bract united to the 

 scale, and in others not, it is plain that the union of these dif- 

 ferent parts is not essential to the relations of a disk, as indeed 

 we know from other facts ; and accordingly in the yew we have 

 the other extreme, in which the calyx, petal, and disk are all 

 separate and distinct. 



The yew also shows us that although in cone-bearing Conifers 



