5i8 
PHANEROGAMS. 
Pinns) the seminiferous scales (Fig. 353, A, B, s) appear to be axillary structures 
in the axils of bracts {c) which spring from the axis of the cone ; but the exami- 
nation of very young cones of Abies pectinata shows that the seminiferous scale 
itself arises as a protuberance at the base of the bract {c), and is therefore not 
axillary. While the bract afterwards grows very little or not at all, this protuber- 
ance increases greatly, and produces on its upper surface two ovules which are 
attached to it by one side with the micropyle 
towards the axis of the cone. The seminiferous 
scale of these genera must therefore be con- 
sidered as a greatly developed placenta growing 
out of a carpel (Fig. 353 A, B, c) which is very 
small or even abortive \ According to this view 
the whole cone is a single flower with a number 
of small open carpels (hitherto considered as 
bracts), which are far outstripped in their growth 
by their seminiferous placentae (the scales). In 
the other Abietineae also, the female flowers of 
which 1 have had no opportunity of examining, 
it may be concluded from the descriptions that 
the cone is a single flower with numerous semi- 
niferous scales arranged spirally, not springing 
from the axils of leaves, but growing imme- 
diately out of the axis of the cone, and therefore 
themselves leaves and of a carpellary nature. 
Eichler (/. c.) says, in reference to Damniara, 
Cunninghamia, Arihroiaxis, and Sequoia: — 'The 
scales of a cone are in these genera all of one 
kind; they consist simply of open carpels; and, 
in order not to introduce confusion into the 
definition of a flower, the whole of what is found 
on the axis, in other words the whole cone, must 
be considered a single flower; and this is also 
necessary in the case of the Araucariese, the 
Cupressinese, and the male 'catkins' of all Coni- 
ferse^.' In Araucaria each scale (or carpel) 
bears only a single ovule, which, according to 
Eichler, is so enveloped by it that the only 
Fig. 353. — Abies pectinata (after Schacht). A a 
leaf detached from the female floral axis seen from 
above, with the seminiferous scale j bearing the 
ovules sk (magnified) ; B upper part of the female 
flower (or cone) in the mature state ; sp floral axis or 
axis of the cone, c its leaves, s the largely developed 
seminiferous scales ; C a ripe seminiferous scale 
with the two seeds sa, f the wing of the seed 
(reduced). 
^ Braun, Caspary, and Eichler consider the seminiferous scale in Pinns and Larix as itself a 
flower; i. e. as a short axis which has coalesced with its two carpels and stands in the axil of the bract 
(c in our figure). In that case the cone of these genera, in contradistinction to that of the other 
Coniferae and of Cycadese, would be an inflorescence {cf. Caspary in Ann. des Sei. Nat. 4th series, 
vol. XIV, p. 200, and Flora, 1862, p. 377) ; but this view I have already contested more in detail in 
my first edition, p. 427. It is impossible to consider the seminiferous scale of Pinns and Abies itself 
as a single carpel. In opposition also to the most recent views of Mohl (Bot. Zeitg. 1871, p. 22, and 
of Strasbuiger), I cannot bring myself to consider the seminiferous scale of the true Abietineae as a 
coherent structure formed of two leaves of an undeveloped branch. 
^ Eichler thinks that an exception must be made in favour of Podocarpus and Cephalotaxus. 
