PLATE II— CONIFERS— Male Organs. 



(Figs. 2 and 10 ofttr Dodtl-Port ; Fig. 9 after Lutrssen.) 



The Coniferse are usually trees, with needle-shaped leaves, and fructification in the form of a cone, hence the name cone-bearers. 

 This structure has been already met with in the higher Cryptogams. The cone of a Lycopod or Selaginella has an upright axis, clothed 

 with modified leaves or bracts, bearing sporangia in their axils. 



The Stem of Pines and Larches, for instance, bears merely brown scales to represent leaves, and in their axils arise a tuft or a pair 

 of the green foliage-leaves. These pairs or tufts of green leaves are really branches with their axis undeveloped; indeed, if a young 

 Larch is examined, some of the tufts will be met with elongated and developed into branches. 



The Flower and Fruit will only be considered now — the Male Flower in this Plate and the Female Flower and Fruit in the next 

 The male flowers are much simpler in their construction than the female flowers. They are little cones developed in the axils of scales. 

 They discharge their pollen about May, and in such enormous quantities as to give rise to the so-called showers of sulphur — the pollen 

 being powdery and of a sulphur-yellow colour. 



Fossil forms occur in the Carboniferous formation, the wood exhibiting the bordered pits characteristic of the wood-cells of Conifers. 



Fig. 1. Shoot, bearing Inflorescence of nine Male Flowers. 



Primary shoot with leaves reduced to mere brown scales. 



Rudimentary shoots arising from the axils of the brown scales, each with needle-shaped leaves in pairs. 



Terminal bud which develops into new shoot. 



Male Flowers arranged at the base of the young shoot. 



Fig. 2. Single Male Flower. 



Each male flower is situated — like an ordinary bud — in the axil of a bract It is a modified shoot, the lateral 

 appendages of which become Stamens. 

 Fig. 3. Embed Male Flower in paraffin, and make longitudinal section. Examine first under low power to make out general 

 arrangement, then under high power to make out details of structure. 



Axis of cone with fibro-vascular bundles running through it, branching to each stamen. 



Pollen-sacs borne on the under surface of modified leaves, one on each side of midrib, which here forms a 

 Connective between the two. When the inner cells of a leaf give rise to pollen-grains, such a leaf is called a 

 Staminal leaf, or simply a stamen; and the particular part of the leaf where this formation of pollen takes place is 

 called an Anther. The Male cone is therefore a single flower, because it consists of a single axis bearing Stamens, 

 which are here arranged spirally. 

 Fig. 4. Detached Stamen with two pollen-sacs upon its under surface, and provided with a very short stalk or filament 



The pollen-sacs open by a longitudinal slit on the under surface. 

 Fig. 5. Male Flower of Yew, consisting of an axis bearing a number of shield-shaped bodies. These are the Stamens. 

 Fig. 6. Embed Male Flower in paraffin, and make transverse section (compare with transverse section of cone of Equisetum). 



Central axis giving off fibro-vascular bundle to each Stamen. 

 Fig. 7. Detached Stamen— the pollen-sacs are developed radially, and not bi-laterally, as in Fig. 4. 

 Fig. 8. Pollen-sacs opening on their under surface. 



Figs. 9 and 10. Examine pollen-grains, first under low power, then under high power. Stain with iodine to bring out the 

 division between the two cells. 

 Pollen-grain with a double coat. 

 Outer coat or Extine is yellowish, and sculptured all over. It comes off in water, being ruptured by the swelling 



of the inner. It expands into two wing-like swellings. 

 Inner coat or Intine is colourless and expansible. 



Contents divided into two cells— a small Vegetative cell, representing the last rudiment of a prothallus, and a 

 larger Antheridial cell, so-called, because it forms the pollen-tube, which corresponds to an antheridium not 

 developing antherozoids. 

 Fig. 11. Treat some pollen of Larch with caustic potash, and crush, to rupture outer coat, which is somewhat opaque. Examine 

 under high power. 



The small vegetative cell is seen to be divided into several cells. 



