452 



PHANEROGAMS. 



So far as the relative positions of the parts of the (lower can be explained 

 without going back to their earliest stage, a great diversity is thus shown in the 

 two families of Taxineae and Cupressinese ; the ovule is terminal in Taxus, lateral 

 beneath the summit of the axis in Salisburia, carpellary leaves appearing to be 

 entirely absent. In Podocarpus and Phyllocladus they are indicated indeed, as small 

 scales, the ovules springing from their axils ; but they are small and do not at any 

 time constitute a pericarp. A structure of this kind, in the form of a berry or of a 



chambered woody fruit, is indeed formed 

 after fertilisation in the Cupressinese, the 

 carpels either becoming fleshy and growing 

 together (as in Juniperus and Sabina), or 

 becoming woody and closing in laterally by 

 their peltate expansions (as in Cupressus, 

 Thuja, and Callitris), or presenting the ap- 

 pearance of the lobes of a unilocular capsule 

 {e.g. Frenela) ; but the carpels are in these 

 cases at first entirely open. In Juniperus com- 

 viunis the ovules form a whorl alternating 

 with the carpels ; in the other genera they 

 stand in pairs or in larger numbers at their 

 base, or cover the whole of their inner side 

 (as Frenela). 



In the Abietineae the well-known cones 

 are the female flowers (or rather fruits). The 

 cone is a metamorphosed shoot, its axis 

 bearing a number of crowded woody scales 

 arranged spirally, the ovules arising on them 

 rarely singly, usually in pairs, occasionally in 

 larger numbers. In the Pinese (Abies, Picea, 

 Larix, Cedius, and Pinus) the seminiferous 

 scales (Fig. 323, A, B, s) appear as axial 

 structures in the axils of bracts (c) which 

 spring from the axis of the cone ; but the 

 examination of very young cones of Abies 

 peclinaia 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 protuberance increases 

 greatly, and produces on its upper surface two ovules which are attached to it by one 

 side with the m.icropyle towards the axis of the cone. The seminiferous scale of these 

 genera must therefore be considered as a greatly developed placenta growing out 

 of a carpel (Fig. 323 A,B c) which is very small or even abortive'. According to 



Fig. -^u-i.-^ Abies pecti7iata (after Schacht). A a 

 leaf detached from the female floral axis seen from 

 above, with the seminiferous scale s 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, cits leaves, s the largely developed 

 senii))iferouB scales ; C a ripe seminiferous scale 

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

 (reduced), 



^ Braun, 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 



