XXXm] COKDAIANTHUS 267 



the bud-like fertile shoots and the stalked Samaropsis seeds. 

 A species described by Eenault^ from Commentry as Gordaianthus 

 acicularis may be identical with the British species. 



Gordaianthus Volkmanni Ettingshausen. 



The example of this species^ seen in fig. 480, B, shows the 

 relatively small size of the lateral buds, presumably unexpanded, 

 compared with the large subtending bracts. 



Petrified specimens of Gordaianthus. 



Our knowledge of the structure of Gordaianthus is based 

 on the researches of Eenault^, supplemented by those of Prof. 

 Bertrand* to whose kindness I owe the photographs reproduced 

 in fig. 481. The inflorescences described by Eenault are referred 

 by him to different species, but in the following brief account 

 these are treated from a generic standpoint. The tangential 

 section of Gordaianthus Williamsoni Een. shown in fig. 481, D, 

 was originally figured by Eenault and more recently by Bertrand ; 

 it shows the spirally disposed leaf-traces in the lower part of a 

 stout axis, and at the sides some vascular bundles are seen pass- 

 ing up into the bracts. A very small proportion of the bracts 

 subtend ovules ; two are seen at a and b, and at c is the tangentially 

 cut micropylar canal of a third borne near the apex and covered 

 by the terminal cluster of bracts. The ovule a, separated by a 

 narrow space from its short stalk, consists of a thick single integu- 

 ment — not two as stated by Eenault — extended at the apex, as 

 a micropylar canal: the apical extension is more completely 

 shown in the tangentially cut ovule b. The central body is much 

 contracted and the two spaces, s, at the base are regarded by 

 Bertrand as cavities in the integument separated from one another 

 by a central strand of conducting tissue which gives off two 

 bundles to the integument, one at each end of the long axis of 

 the seed (fig. 481, A, v). The dark patch, n (fig. D), is the upper 

 and broader end of the shrunken nucellus the apex of which 

 extends upwards as a slender beak, and this originally no doubt 

 fitted into the micropyle. Fig. 481, C, shows a female inflorescence 



1 Renault and ZeiUer (90) A. p. 592, PI. Lxxm. fig. 31. 



2 Ettingshausen (522) p, 5^ pi_ y_ 



» Renault (79) B. p. 304. <> Bertrand, C. E. (11). 



