552 STUDIES IN FOSSIL BOTANY 



fossil group. The staminiferous flowers (however we 

 may interpret them) are very different from anything 

 known to us, either in the Cycadaceae or the true 

 Coniferae. A comparison, though in either case a 

 remote one, is possible with the Gnetaceae (Gnetum or 

 Ephedra), on the one hand, or with Ginkgo, on the 

 other. On the former alternative, we should have to 

 regard the stalked tuft of pollen-sacs as representing 

 an axis, bearing sessile anthers ; on the latter, we 

 should interpret it as a single sporophyll, with terminal 

 microsporangia. The latter view is the simpler, and 

 the analogy with Ginkgo, in many respects a primitive 

 type, is more valuable than that with the highly 

 specialised Gnetaceae. On any view, however, the 

 organisation of the male flower of Cordaiteae is quite 

 peculiar, and unlike that in other Gymnosperms, and 

 even if it stood alone, would serve to mark them as 

 a distinct Order. 



The female strobilus, like the male, is as remote as 

 possible from that of the Cycads, but agrees well 

 enough with the cone of the Coniferae, if we adopt 

 the view that in the latter the ovule is borne on an 

 axillary shoot, more or less modified. This, in fact, 

 seems, provisionally, quite a tenable view, for on this 

 supposition we should have the ancient Cordaiteae 

 showing, in its simplest form, an arrangement which 

 became much modified and disguised in the more 

 recent Order, Coniferae. 1 At the same time it must be 

 admitted that the true relation of the Cordaiteae to the 

 Coniferae is still an open question (Chap. XIV.). The 



1 For a summary of the various views as to the morphology of the 

 female cone in Coniferae, see Worsdell, Annals of Botany, March 1900. 



