IN cycadEjB and conifers. 455 



in some genera of Coniferse the ovulum appears to be 

 complete. 



In Ephedra, indeed, where the nucleus is provided with 

 two envelopes, the outer may, perhaps, be supposed rather 

 analogous to the calyx, or involucrum of the male flower, 

 than as belonging to the ovulum ; but in Gnetum, [557 

 where three envelopes exist, two of these may, with great 

 probability, be regarded as coats of the nucleus ; while in 

 Podocarpus and Dacrydium, the outer cupula, as I formerly 

 termed it/ may also, perhaps, be viewed as the testa of the 

 ovulum. To this view, as far as relates to Dacrydium, the 

 longitudinal fissure of the outer coat in the early stage, and 

 its state in the ripe fruit, in which it forms only a partial 

 covering, may be objected.^ But these objections are, in a 

 great measure, removed by the analogous structm'e already 

 described in Banksia and Dryandra. 



The plurality of embryos sometimes occurring in Coni- 

 ferse, and which, in Cycadese, seems even to be the natural 

 structure, may also, perhaps, be supposed to form an objec- 

 tion to the present opinion, though to me it appears rather 

 an argument in its favour. 



Upon the whole, the objections to which the view here 

 taken of the structure of these two families is still liable, 

 seem to me, as far as I am aware of them, much less impor- 

 tant than those that may be brought against the other 

 opinions that have been advanced, and still divide botanists 

 on this subject. 



According to the earliest of these opinions, the female 

 flower of Cycadese and Coniferse is a monospermous pistil- 

 lum, having no proper floral envelope. 



To this structure, however, Pinus itself was long con- 

 sidered by many botanists as presenting an exception. 



Linnaeus has expressed himself so obscurely in the natural 

 character which he has given of this genus, that I find it 

 difficult to determine what his opinion of its structure really 

 was. I am inclined, however, to believe it to have-been [bbs 

 much nearer the truth than is generally supposed ; judging 

 of it from a comparison of his essential with his artificial 



1 minders' Voy. vol. ii, p. 573 {ante, p. 47). ^ id. loc. cif.. 



