138 



MORPHOLOGY OF SPBRMATOPHYTES 



fairly regarded as sporophylls. These sporophylls are narrower 

 than the sterile bracts, and each bears at the apex a cluster of two 

 to six sporangia, which are linear and erect, and dehisce by a lon- 

 gitudinal slit (Fig. 95, B). The sporophyll character of this 

 structure is the view suggested by Eenault, and according to this 

 view it is morphologically a stamen. Solms-Laubach, however, 

 regards each of these so-called stamens as a staminate flower, the 



Fio. 95. — Gordaites, stammata sti'obilus: ^, transverse section; 5, longitudinal section 

 of strobilus of C Fenjoni ; C, a pollen grain, showing the group of internal cells.— 

 After Renadlt. 



sporangia being sessile upon the summit of a pedicel. Such a 

 view would suggest, as a parallel, the staminate flowers of Ephe- 

 dra and Gnetum, in which two or more sessile sporangia are borne 

 by a special axis which may be regarded as a pedicel, or at least 

 a shoot. Scott suggests, however, that the whole cluster of 

 strobili corresponds more to the staminate cluster of Ginkgo 

 than to any other known Gymnosperm. In any event, the in- 

 florescence is different from that of any other Gymnosperm, and 



