340 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ NOVEMBER 
that the ancestral condition was bisporangiate. The sporophyll 
tesembles that of Pinus, although it is comparatively shorter and 
broader, and has two abaxial sporangia (fig. r). Whether it has any 
aborted sporangia, as reported in the Taxineae, could not be deter- 
mined. At least when mature it has fewer sporangia than any of the 
Taxineae; Taxus baccata having seven, Torreya taxifolia four, 
Cephalotaxus four to two, and Phyllocladus two. 
Male gametophyte 
Material collected November 1 showed the microspores shed and 
the sporangia wide open along the whole line of dehiscence. Only 
three or four sporangia retained a few spores, and therefore the sec- 
tions did not show many stages. 
The youngest stage found in the development of the microspore 
was the uninucleate stage (fig. 3), with the wings fully developed. The 
microspores contain no starch; CouLTER and Lanp (Q) found the 
microspores of Torreya taxifolia rich in starch; Miss Youne (20) 
found starch in the spores of Dacrydium; the body cell of Crypio- 
meria japonica contains starch grains, according to LAWSON : (16) : 
COKER (7) found the spores of Podocarpus, during all of the divisions, 
packed with starch, which disappears just before shedding; CHAM 
BERLAIN (6) found starch in the spores of Pinus Laricio, and Miss 
FERGUSON (12) in the spores of the species of pine studied by hes. 
The first division of the microspore cuts off a prothallial - 
which usually lies against the wall, and which immediately begins 4 
disorganize (fig. 6). Soon a second prothallial cell is cut off. Thee 
two prothallial cells are at first surrounded by delicate walls which 
very soon disappear, so that when the spore is mature all the Ae 
nuclei lie free in the common cytoplasm. The first prothallial c : 
is commonly evanescent and its nucleus soon disintegrates (figs. 9 7 0); 
in two mature spores it was still recognizable (fig. 11). ices ese 
prothallial cell always persists, in which respect Phyllocladus 1s — 
to Ginkgo. 
Prothallial cells have heretofore not been reported in any scr 
Coniferales except Podocarpineae and Abietineae. COKE @) 
Teports two prothallial cells in Podocarpus, one of which a 
further, while the other slowly degenerates. In Podocarpus — 
