CONIFERALES (TAXACEAE) 



323 



occurrence of very simple strobili, containing usually one ovule, and 

 borne in the axils of leaves of young shoots (fig. 377). Among the 

 taxads and in Phyllocladus the solitary (two in Cephalotaxus) ovule 

 is erect, while among the rest of the podocarps it is inverted. Podo- 

 carpus has received its name from the fact that the ovule is stipitate, 

 usually arising conspicuously above the bracts (fig. 378). 



In Saxegothaea (152) the solitary 

 and more or less inverted ovule is 

 borne on the ovuliferous scale near 

 the base of the adaxial face. The 

 ovulate cone of this genus, as stated 

 above, is terminal on the short branch 

 in the axils of whose leaves the stami- 

 nate strobili occur. Its peduncle is at 

 first short and is clothed with bracts 

 that envelop the strobilus, but later it 

 elongates, rises above the bracts, and 

 becomes relatively long and slender. 

 The resemblance of this habit to that 

 described for Podocarpus is evident, 

 although the elongating structure is not 

 the same in the two cases. In both 

 Saxegothaea and Microcachrys there is 

 the same intergrading of bracts into 

 sporophylls above and foliage leaves 

 below that characterizes the araucarians. 



In Phyllocladus (144) the strobili are borne at the edge of the 

 phylloclads near the base, occurring singly or in pairs, and consisting 

 of six or eight thick bracts, each with an axillary erect ovule. This 

 position is understood when it is remembered that the phylloclad is 

 a transformed dwarf shoot. 



It is difficult, and perhaps unprofitable, to compare this strobilus 

 situation with that of the Pinaceae; but the two families exhibit 

 the same general features in the position of the ovules, and differ in 

 the compactness of the strobihf erous region. It is in this feature that 

 Saxegothaea so impressed Lindley, who established the genus, that 

 he regarded it as a transition form between Taxaceae and Pinaceae. 



Fig. 377. — Torreya taxifolia: 

 ovulate strobilus showing envel- 

 oping bracts; n, nucellus; ii, 

 inner integument; oi, outer integu- 

 ment; r, resin cavity; April 7, 

 1904; X24. — After Coulter and 

 Land (ioi). 



