SPERMATOPHYTES 



231 



pound staminate strobili occur. The bractlets of this secondary axis, 

 which invest the stamens, were interpreted as representing the perianth 

 of a flower, and the presence of a perianth was regarded as another 

 striking angiosperm character of Gnetales ; but if these bracts represent 

 a perianth, those in the compound ovulate strobilus of Cordaitales also 

 represent a perianth, as well as all bractlets on secondary axes of 

 strobili. To extend the term perianth to include these vague conditions 



Figs. 522-524. — Gnetum latifolium: 522, branch bearing staminate strobili and the 

 characteristic leaves; 523, part of staminate strobilus, showing the "connate" bracts, 

 and in their axils numerous staminate "flowers"; 524, a single staminate "flower." — 

 After Blume. 



is to make it difficult to define, and perhaps is to mislead as to the 

 origin of the perianth of angiosperms. 



Ovulate strobilus. — The ovulate strobili have the same general 

 structure as the staminate, the so-called ovulate flowers arising in 

 the axils of the bracts (figs. 514, 518, 526, 527). There is the 

 same perianth structure observed in the staminate flowers, and in 

 Tumhoa there is said to appear outside of the ovule the rudiments 

 of a stamen set. 



