452 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
and assimilatory organs (needles) differ widely; but abnormal 
transitory forms (figs. 24-28) which we have observed and described 
in previous works (9) allow us to state that all the forms of the 
different organs of pines are but different distorted features of a 
unique ancestral organ which, like the gametophyte of ferns, 
possessed at the same time the three different physiological func- 
tions of reproduction, assimilation, and protection (10, 11). 
29.—Photograph of 4 inflorescence of P. maritima, shoot bent by sea wind; 
. sterile scales on upper exposed side, with rudimentary 2 flowers developing at base 
of scale in place of normal ¢ flowers; a, normal 4 flowers on protected side; sterilization 
is gradual from protected to exposed flowers. 
All the phyllodes of the primitive coniferous trees were probably 
fertile, and like the fertile leaf in Cycas, but under the pressure of 
unfavorable ecological conditions some parts became sterile scales. 
This is not mere formal hypothesis; such a sterilization has ac- 
tually been observed. On the dunes of Gascony, for instance, 
the parts of the male flowers which are exposed to sea wind are 
sterilized (fig. 29), and scales develop in the place of stamens (8). 
