35 2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [may 



importance of the ovule in this specialized fructification and in the 

 greater advantage which a direct connection with the axial supply 

 affords. This has its beginning in Saxegothaea and Microcachry;-. 

 where the two bundles of the ovular supply have asserted their indi- 

 viduality only part way to the axis, the ovular supply in these forms 

 having possibly originated, as has been suggested, as a revival of the 



mam 



In view of the facts presented, the writer is led to look upon the 

 fertile scale as a simple structure, the homologue of the microsporo- 



Microcachrys, and, ipso facto 



form 



held. With 



microsporophylls show an inversion of the sporangial supply bundles 

 of like character to that of the megasporophyll, 9 and which, on 

 other grounds, have been considered 10 as having a simple mega- 

 sporophyll. This group also has recently been shown to have many 

 features in common with the lower podocarps. Perhaps the most 



method 



of wings on the grains themselves in Saxegothaea and the Araucaneae, 

 the extensive microgametophyte of the two groups, the single mverte^ 

 ovule, the wide micropyle and projecting nucellus, the nucellus ree 

 from the integument to its base— features which bring these forms in o 



intimate association. 



then 



The simple-scale groups, the Taxaceae and Araucarieae, have 

 their micro- and megasporangia on opposite sides of the sporop y. 



from which the conifers were 



forms 



rph 



v-iwivv-u, liiw jjutiujjsiu. scuta, as is juui.«» ~" i - rfafe 



tomical grounds, have the sporangia usually on the lower s ^ 

 the ovule has probably been transferred to the upper surface^ 1^ 

 course of phylogeny. The ovules on the lower surface of , ^^^ jn 

 of Saxegothaea and their lateral position in Cycas are signi ^ 



this connection, and, as well, the lateral development of the sp 

 gium in Schizaeaceae. 



9 Thomson-, R. B., The origin of the gymnosperms at the Linnean 



Phytol. 5 : i 45 . I0O 6. Phil. 



. • „ -rent and extinct- 



10 Seward, A. C, and Ford, S. O., The Araucaneae, recem 



Trans. Roy. Soc. London B. 198:305-411. pis. 23, 24. io° 6 - 



