88 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [AUGUST 
the very few specimens sectioned; that is, the ovules were borne on 
short secondary and bractlet-bearing axes that arose in the axils of 
the sterile and overlapping bracts that constituted the strobilus. 
This compound ovulate strobilus is a distinctive feature of the coni- 
ferophytes, prevailing among the Pinaceae and characterizing the 
Gnetales. That simple ovulate strobili may have been derived from 
it is quite possible. For example, in Torreya the ovulate strobili 
are simple and are axillary on short leafy branches, just such a branch 
as could have arisen through the elongation of the axis of a compound 
ovulate strobilus, so that the sterile bracts could be replaced by 
foliage leaves. It may be said that the change may have taken place 
in the other direction, and that the short leafy strobiliferous branch 
was compacted into a compound ovulate strobilus; but it must be 
remembered that the Cordaitales with their compound ovulate 
strobili are very old, and that the Taxineae with their leafy strobilif- 
erous branches are relatively very recent. Of course it may be 
discovered that the Cordaitales included also forms with simple 
strobili on leafy shoots. This possibility is further emphasized by 
the fact that the ovulate strobili of the Araucarineae, and of their 
allies the Podocarpineae, are simple. The former tribe is a very 
old one, and its connection with the Cordaitales is either direct of 
nearly so, so that it is altogether probable that such ovulate stro- 
bili occurred in that group. The connection of the Taxineae with 
the Cordaitales, however, appears to be so remote, and their relation 
to groups with compound ovulate strobili seems to be so much more 
immediate, that it is more reasonable to suppose that their ovulate 
strobiliferous branches have arisen from compound strobili in the way 
described above. 
Long after the Cordaitales had established their simple staminate 
and compound ovulate strobili, strobili appeared in the cycadophyté 
phylum, being found in Bennettitales and Cycadales; and even in 
the living Cycas the loose ovulate strobilus retains the evidence of its 
origin from the separated sporophylls of Cycadofilicales. The cycat 
ophyte strobilus has always been simple, and this may be related 
to the more compact habit of body, with its lack of free-branching: 
The most remarkable feature of the early strobili of this phylum 
however, is their amphisporangiate character, the two sets of spot . 
