XXXVII] WILLIAMSONIA 453 



of secretory sacs and a few patches of scalariform tracheids: 

 there is evidence of the occurrence of peripheral conducting tissue 

 in the lower portion of the axis such as occurs in the peduncles 

 of American species of Cycadeoidea described by Wieland. The 

 bracts nearer the axis are more shrivelled than those farther away, 

 the result of the feebler development of hypodermal stereome in 

 the more internal bracts. Sunken stomata occur on the lower 

 surface of some of the bracts: several collateral bundles are 

 present in each and large secretory ducts are abundant. The 



Fia. 564. WilUamsonia scoiica. Transverse section near the distal end of a 

 mioropylar tube and the surrounding polygonal interseminal scales, (ca. x 100.) 



numerous hairs on the bracts and the sterile region of the cone 

 are outgrowths of epidermal cells; most of them consist of a 

 short basal cell and a very long thick-walled tubular hair reaching 

 a length of several centimetres. In some cases the basal cell 

 bears a group of short cells each of which is the starting-point 

 of a long hair : this is worthy of notice from the point of view of 

 comparison with the ramenta of other Bennettitalean flowers. 

 The short proximal cell of a hair is surrounded by a cuticular 

 ring like a rounded base-moulding where it rests on the epidermis : 

 this has been aptly compared to the dark rings that form 



