1915] _  AASE—MEGASPOROPHYLLS OF CONIFERS 279 
a reduced branch system, or the large number of ovules is a new 
feature. 
Rapats (2) in 1894 made a rather intensive study of a number 
of cones of the Abietineae and Taxodineae. He notes that the 
bundles to bract and scale are distinct in origin in the Abietineae, 
Sciadopitys, and some of the Taxodineae, as Cryptomeria, Taxodium, 
and Sequoia, and how this distinctness is on its way to obliteration 
in species of Arthrotaxis and more so in Cunninghamia, and is lost 
in Araucaria Rulei. 
WoRSDELL (10, 11) in 1899 made a comparative study of types 
from the different tribes. He believes that in the megasporophyll 
in all conifers there is an axillary structure concerned. Speaking 
of Araucaria he says: 
Holding to the theory of the axillary bud as the explanation of the structure 
of the appendage of the cone in Araucaria, I believe, with CELAKovsKy, that 
the ligule represents the seminiferous scale which is itself the vegetatively 
developed outer integument of a sporangium situated in the anterior position 
on an axillary bud. ‘This outer integument has become almost completely 
_ fused with the subtending bract in Araucaria, completely so in Agathis. 
Concerning the Taxeae and Podocarpeae he says: 
The Taxeae differ from the other groups in the fact that the sporangia 
occur in a position terminal instead of lateral to the axis on which they are 
borne. The anatomy points clearly to the fact that no axial foliar appendage 
of any kind exists upon which the sporangia are inserted, the cylinder of the 
axis being directly continuous into the base of the sporangium. This latter 
difference, however, amounts to very little if we regard, with CELAKOVSKY, 
the seminiferous scale of the other groups as being the morphological equivalent 
of the outer integument of the Taxeae, which has become, with the exception 
of Podocarpeae, vegetatively developed. In the Podocarpeae the relationship 
is precisely the same as in the Taxeae, with the exception of the axillary instea 
of terminal position of the sporangium. In this order the bundle system belong- 
ing to the sporangium (which is in all the other groups the sole representative 
of the sporophyll according to the view I here adopt) becomes obvious, owing 
to the fact that the latter gets by the basal intercalary growth on to the upper 
part of the bract. In the four other groups the bundle system pertaining to 
the vegetative development of their outer integuments, which, in the form of 
the widely expanded seminiferous scale, possesses a pronounced vascular tissue. 
SewArp and Forp (3) in 1906, in a somewhat extensive article 
on living and fossil Araucarineae, offer no interpretation of the 
