14 



EDWARD C. JEFFREY ON 



In figure 33, plate 5, is shown part of a transverse section of the axis of the female 

 cone in Pseudolarix. On the lower side of the figure may he seen a few small bundles 

 belonging to the fibrovascular ring of the cone axis. On the inner side of these is a 

 dense mass of sclerenchymatous tissue, which is the only part of the cone left hanging to 

 the tree after the very deciduous ovuliferous scales have fallen away, carrying with them 

 piecemeal the bundles of the axis to which their own fibrovascular supply is attached. Out- 

 side the ring of fibrovascular bundles, the cortical tissues of the reproductive axis are for 

 the most part made up of delicate parenchyma cells; but these are interspersed with a 

 considerable number of short stone cells, which make the cutting of suitable sections of 

 the axis a rather difficult matter. The most interesting features of the cortex of the 

 cone, however, are the presence of resin canals similar to those occurring in the cortical 

 tissues of all the organs of most of the Abietineae, and the absence of the mucilage cells, 

 such as are found in the vegetative cortex of Pseudolarix. The resin canals in the pres- 

 ent instance are quite large in size, and do not appear at once in the base of the cone 

 proper. Further, they are of short length and do not intercommunicate with each other, 

 a fact which makes the proper infiltrating of the axis with celloidin somewhat difficult. In 

 figure 34, plate 5, is seen a section through the base of one of the ovuliferous scales and 

 its subtending bract. The ovuliferous scale is very large and only a small part of it is 

 shown on the upper side of the figure, while the bract is so small as to be entirely 

 included. The sterile bract has not yet become free from the lower surface of its ovuli- 

 ferous scale and does not show the presence of any resin canals. The magnification is not 

 sufficient to show that the fibrovascular strand of the bract is double. In the tissues of 

 the ovuliferous scale proper there are numerous quite typical resin canals, such as are 

 characteristic of the cortical tissues of the other Abietineae. These canals are continuous 

 with the similar canals already described in the case of the axis of the cone. 



In figure 35, plate 5, is a section of the sterile bract at a point some distance above its 

 separation from the face of the ovuliferous scale. The fibrovascular bundle has shrunken 

 badly as the result of imperfect preservation in an insufficient amount of alcohol. The 

 important point to note in the present figure is the presence of a pair of resin canals, one 

 on each side of the gap in the tissues corresponding to the position of the fibrovascular 

 bundle. 



Figure 36, plate 5, represents a cross section of one of the rather slender leaves of 

 Pseudolarix under a considerable degree of magnification. The histological elements 

 present are very small so it is not easy to make out that there are present five resin 

 canals on the margin of the mesophyll and over against the hypoderma, which surrounds 

 the leaf underneath the epidermis. Of these canals three are on the upper surface, one 

 of which is median and two lateral ; the remaining two canals are placed laterally on the 



