PHANEROGAMIA : FLOWERS. 383 



b. Spermophore as a distinguishable part of an independent 

 organ ; 



c. Spermophore as an independent organ. 



We have now to compare these with the different conditions 

 and the various forms of the germen. 



1. Where the pistil is entirely wanting, as in the Cycadacece, 

 Coniferce, and Loranthacece, we have as yet, unfortunately, so little 

 material toward the history of the development, that we can only 

 venture to make explanatory guesses under the guidance of laws* 

 discovered in plants which have been well investigated. According 

 to these the matter stands as follows : 



a. We find the naked seed-buds, as the immediate termination 

 of the floral axis, without distinguishable Spermophore in Taxus, 

 Ephedra, Podocarpus, Dacrydium, and the Loranthacece. 



b. In the axil of a bract (in Pinus, Larix, Abies, and Gingko), 

 or without any bract (as in Zamia, Araucaria, and Agathis), a 

 twig is formed which, as independent Spermophore, bears the seed- 

 bud. In CycaS) this Spermophore is flat, and bears many seed-buds 

 on its margins ; scale-like, and bearing one (in Agathis and Arau- 

 caria), or two (in Zamia, Pinus, Larix, and Abies) seed-buds upon 

 its upper surface ; or branched like a stem, and bearing one seed- 

 bud upon the point of each twig (as in Gingko). 



Respecting the remaining Coniferce, and especially the group of 

 the Cupressinece, for example Juniperus, Cupressus, Thuja, &c., I 

 will not venture even to express a supposition, in the absence of a 

 history of the development or sufficient analogies. 



2. In the superior germens an axial organ must always project 

 into the carpels in the Spermophore. 



3. In germens that are either half or wholly inferior, the floral 

 axis itself, in the form of the inferior germen, is always the sper- 

 mophore. 



4. In the superior stem-germen and stem-pistil it is always the 

 floral axis which bears the seed-bud. In the first, three prominent 

 ridges are developed as spermophores ; in the second, the seed-buds 

 are formed on the edges of the flat expanded branches, curved in a 

 little toward the interior. These edges may here form merely a 

 slight prominence (spermophorum parietale of the Leguminoscs), or 

 they may extend quite across the cavity, becoming blended by 

 their meeting surfaces, so that the two seed-bud-bearing edges are 

 placed in the inner angle of each compartment (gemmulce angulo 

 loculorum inferno affixes; as in the Liliacece). 



5. Besides these cases a condition, which seems quite abnormal, 

 sometimes occurs, in which the entire surface of the septum is 

 covered with seed-buds ; as in Butomus, Hydrocharis, Stratiotes, 

 Nymphaa, and Nuphar. 



These are all the varieties with which I am acquainted in the 



* Of the family just named, I have as yet only followed the development of Abies 

 Taxus, and l r iscnm so perfectly as to leave no further doubt. 



