CONIFERALRS 



65 



the larger branches (Figs. 49, 50, 53, 57, 58). Sometimes they 

 apiDear terminal on small leafy shoots of the last order, and 

 sometimes they ocenr in the axils of the leaves of stronger 

 shoots. In Pill us they replace spur shoots in the axils of scales, 

 heing nsnally nimierons and forming a cluster beyond which 

 the parent axis continues its growth. 



The sporophylls follow the leaf arrangement ; for example, 

 they are spiral in Abieteae, and cyclic in Cupresseae. They are 

 exceedingly variable in form, nearly every genus having a char- 

 acteristic mierosporophyll (Fig. 51). In almost every case there 

 is an evident differentiation into a stalklike base and an expanded 

 terminal portion, the latter bearing the sporangia. Peltate 

 forms occur, as in Taxus, recalling the sporophylls of some of 

 the Cycads and of Equisetum, and from beneath the peltate 

 expansion the numerous free si^orangia are pendent by a narrow 



f^S- 



\ ' 



Fig. id.— Finns Laricin. Longitudinal Fig. .50.— ./«"7'fr«» c-omwi/»is, lonfritudi- 

 seotiou of a staminate strobilus col- nal section of a staniinate strobilus, 



lected in November, x 14. x 24. 



base. Numerous modifications of the peltate type occur, as in 

 Araucaria, Cupressiis, Cryptomeria, etc., as well as transitions 

 to the type exhibited by Pinus and its allies, in which the ex- 

 panded portion continues the plane of the stalk, and bears upon 

 its lower surface two pouchlike more or less imbedded^sporangia. 



