278 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [OCTOBER 
complete summaries of these investigations are given by RADAIS 
(2) and WoRSDELL (11). 
Van TIEGHEM (9) in 1869 was the first to attack the problem 
from the standpoint of vascular anatomy. He studied forms from 
all the six large groups. He concluded that the megasporophyll 
in all Coniferales is a compound structure. The seminiferous 
scale represents the first and only leaf of an axillary shoot, as the 
vascular supply to the scale is arranged in an arc. The ovules 
are borne on the dorsal side of the leaf except in Araucaria, where 
the ovule is reflexed toward the ventral side and hence appears 
to be located between the bract and scale. In the Podocarpineae 
and Taxineae the leaf is reduced to such an extent that it is repre- 
sented practically only by the ovule. In Podocarpus the leaf is 
folded on its dorsal surface to form an anatropous ovule, while in 
Pherosphaera, species of Dacrydium, Phyllocladus, and the Taxineae, 
the leaf remains erect and the ovule is orthotropous. The inver- 
sion of the ovule in certain forms is probably related to the greater 
elongation of the sporophyll beneath the ovular insertion in those 
orms. 
STRASBURGER (6, 7) in 1872 and 1879 gave comprehensive 
descriptions of forms from all the groups. He held that in all cases 
the ovule-bearing organ is an axillary structure. In Taxus and 
Torreya the ovule is borne at the end of a secondary leafy shoot; in 
Cephalotaxus the secondary shoots are reduced to ovules. In the 
podocarps the secondary shoot is leafless and often reduced to an 
ovule as in Phyllocladus, or provided with a stalk as in Dacrydium 
and Podocarpus. In the Araucarineae it appears as if a stalk 
bearing an inverted ovule were fused to the dorsal side of the bract. 
In Cunninghamia, which he classified with the Araucarineae, there 
is a fusion of an inflorescence to the bract. In the Abietineae 
the scale is a flattened axillary structure which is folded inward 
and hence bears the ovules inverted. The two ovules suggest 
that the axillary shoot is an inflorescence, a primary and two 
secondary shoots similar to the two-flowered inflorescence in 
Cephalotaxus. In the Cupressineae and Taxodineae the scale and 
bract are fully welded together. Where many ovules occur, as 
in Cupressus, he left it undecided whether the ovules represent 
