Vol. 2 No. 8 



TORREYA 



August, 1902 LIBRARY 



NEW YOfeK 

 BOTANICAL 



VIVIPARY IN PODOCARPUS* 



By Francis E. Lloyd 



An interesting case of vivipary, one which appears to be more 

 or less widely known, but, nevertheless, unrecorded f is that 

 which occurs in Podocarpus Makoyi. It is quite probable that 

 the same thing occurs in some other species of the genus. Dur- 

 ing the past winter a specimen of this species some four feet in 

 height has produced, in the conservatory of the New York 

 Botanical Garden, an excellent crop of fruits, and these have, 

 almost without exception, germinated, and this on the tree, so 

 that the plant presented, for a greenhouse plant, a very unique 

 and interesting appearance. A shoot, bearing a germinating seed, 

 is shown in Fig. 1. 



The ovules of Podocarpus Makoyi are produced laterally in the 

 axils of the leaves. They are provided, as are all the Taxaceae, 

 with a fleshy, aril-like organ, dark purple when ripe {int. 2, Fig. 

 2), which is generally regarded as an outer integument. Sur- 

 mounting this is the glaucous green, oval body, consisting, when 

 young, of nucellus and integument (inner integument, according to 

 the terminology here used, int. 1 , Fig. 2), which corresponds to 

 the similar body deeply buried in the pit of a Taxus fruit. From 

 this, however, it differs in the fact that in Podocarpus it comes 

 into an anatropous position. The micropyle is then so placed 

 as to lie against the fleshy outer integument (Fig. 2, c). 



* Read at a meeting of the Torrey Botanical Club, May 13, 1902. 



f I learn from Mr. K. Miyake that the phenomenon is, as would be expected, 

 well known in Japan and has probably been described in Japanese ; it has also been 

 observed before in cultivation elsewhere. 



[The exact date of publication of each issue of Torreya is given in the succeed- 

 ing number. Vol. 2, No. 7, comprising pages 97-112 was issued July 1, 1902.] 



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