CORDAITEAE 537 



is open to various interpretations. M. Renault regards 

 the male " flower " as consisting of a group of two 

 or three stamens at the apex of the catkin, but 

 as reduced to a single stamen, where the position is 

 axillary. Count Solms-Laubach prefers to regard each 



Fig. 193. — Cordaia.nth.us Pcnjcni. * A. Longitudinal section of male catkin, a, axis ; />, 

 sterile bracts ; c, filament, bearing the pollen-sacs (?) at the top ; d, junction of fila- 

 ment with pollen-sacs \f, detached pollen-sac ; r 1 , apex of axis, with stamens around 

 it. x 6-\. B. Stamens, more highly magnified, g, vascular bundle of filament, 

 sending branches to the pollen-sacs ; c, pollen-sac after dehiscence ; e', sac still full of 

 pollen ; /, apex of axis. Other letters as in A. X 23. Both after Renault. 



of Renault's " stamens " as itself constituting a male 

 " flower," the stalk on which the pollen-sacs are borne 

 thus representing a pedicel, and not a filament, while 

 the pollen - sacs are themselves the stamens. On 

 this view there would be a certain resemblance to the 

 male flowers of Gnetaceae. In Gnetum, for example, 



