ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 275 



diflferent female flowers exist : (a) those without stigmas and with 

 short style adapted to ovipositors of gall- wasps (Gynips hlastophaga), 

 and with ovaries which swell up (without fertilization) as the result 

 of the gall-formation (" Gallenbliiten ") ; and (h) those with long usually 

 curved style and developed stigmas which do not admit of oviposition 

 by wasps but are adapted for fertilization (" Samenbliiten "). Two sets 

 of colonies occur (1) with only female fertilizable flowers (6), and (2) 

 male colonies, with male flowers in the upper portion and with 

 proterogynous gall-flowers (a) below. Only in the last can the young 

 wasps develope ; in passing out they bear away pollen from the upper 

 male flowers, they visit female colonies (1) (6) and fertilize these, but 

 are unable to effect deposition of ova. The caprificus or male tree 

 has several generations of inflorescences — the " mamme " which last 

 through the winter (with only female gall-flowers (a) ), and the 

 " profichi " with male flowers in the upper zone, which ripen much later 

 than the female gall -flowers which occupy the lower two-thirds of the 

 fig. When the male flowers shed their pollen, the fertilizable female 

 flowers (b) of the female tree are ready to receive it. The different 

 species exhibit a series of modifications through which this interesting 

 arrangement may have arisen. In Ficus elastica and other probably 

 archetypal Urostigma species, male and female flowers occur irregu- 

 larly in the same inflorescence, and the latter are all alike. In others 

 (U. religiosum e. g.) a separation has taken place into an anterior male 

 and posterior female zone. Again we find the same arrangement, 

 but dimorphic females (a) and (6) irregularly intermingled. The 

 long-styled flowers became more and more protected from the danger 

 of gall-formation, and were separated from the other. 



Professor Ludwig points out the interest of these observations in 

 connection with the ancient custom of caprification — hanging the 

 wasp-containing figs of the goat-fig — Caprificus (i. e. the males and 

 gall-forming female flowers (a) ) on the blooming female trees (the 

 Essfeige) ; and also in relation to the general theory of the relation 

 of flowers and insects. 



Fruit-scales of Cupressineae and Placentae of Abietinese.* — Herr 

 A. Kramer points out that in the Conifers the fruit-scales (" Frucht- 

 schuppen ") are simple in some tribes, while in others they are inserted 

 in the axis of small leaves or bracts (" Deckschuppen "), With regard 

 to the morphology of the parts, he supports the view of Sachs, 

 Eichler, and Gobel, that the " bracts " are really open carpels, and 

 the fruit-scales placentae bearing the ovules. The observations were 

 made on Thuja occidentalis, T. gigantea. Biota occidentalis, Chamse- 

 cyparis Lawsoniana, Cupressus sempervirens, and Juniperus communis 

 among Cupressineae, and on Pmus sylvestris, P. montana, P. Strobus, 

 P. Cemhra, Larix Ledebourii, Abies pectinata, Picea rubra, and Tsuga 

 canadensis among Abietineae. 



The cone of Cupressineae consists of several decussate carpels 

 placed on an axis, in the axils of which the ovules originate. The 

 history of development shows that these separate carpels are inde- 



* Flora, Ixviii. (1885) pp. 519-28, 544-68 (1 pi.). 



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