420 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
the whole cluster (fig. 74) is very marked, as may be seen by 
comparing the fibro-vascular bundles in the dichasial group of 
_ staminate flowers in fig. 5, with the diagram of the main inflor- 
escence in fig. rg. If in the latter, the terminal flowers after 
the first be suppressed, and the second, third, and fourth branches 
produce but one branch each, the resulting arrangement would 
be strictly comparable to that which obtains in the cyathium of 
E. corollata. The tendency of the terminal flower of the cyathium 
(2. e., the pistillate) to disappear is marked, about one in ten 
having either a very rudimentary flower as in fig. 75, or no trace 
of one at all. The cyathium of &. corollata may be interpreted 
then as a much reduced inflorescence, made up of certain ulti- 
mate branches of a more complex inflorescence, possibly of sim- 
ple flowers, which is still undergoing reduction. 
MEGASPORANGIUM AND MEGASPORES. 
The very young ovule stands nearly erect in the lower part 
of the loculus (fig. 6). It develops in such a manner as to 
become recurved, the loculus becoming more roomy by an 
intercalary growth of the base of the carpel and the funiculus. 
The stalk of the ovule, too, becomes elongated, until finally the 
ovule is suspended and anatropous, with the micropyle close to 
the funiculus and the raphe running along the inner edge { figs. 
6-11). The development of the two integuments may be 
traced by the figures; the inner one appears first on the outer 
surface of the ovule, and is closely followed by the second, 
which soon surpasses it (figs. 7-77). 
The embryo sac develops by the usual stages. A single 
hypodermal cell is differentiated from its neighbors and cuts off 
a primary wall cell (tapetum) (figs. 78-20). This is followed 
by a division of the primary sporogenous cell into an axial row 
of four mother cells, the lowermost of which develops into the 
sac (figs. 21-24). The cells of the nucellus, and possibly of 
the epidermis near the upper end of the sac, divide with great 
rapidity, producing a long, slender neck and leaving the sac 
deeply situated (figs. 22, 23, 25, 26). 
