(69) 
ON THE MOEPHOLOGY OF THE FEMALE FLOWER OF 
GNETTJM. 
By H. H. W. Pearson, Sc.D., F.E.S. 
(With Plate xvni.) 
Eeeent investigations seemed to the writer to furnish support for the 
Tiew that the female flower and the spike " of Gnetum are modifications 
of the same primitive structure — that " the primordium which normally 
develops into a female flower may, under certain circumstances, produce a 
normal cone" (i.e. spike)/-' This conclusion rested upon evidence which 
may be briefly reviewed as follows : 
(1) The spike is frequently functionally bisexual.f This is regarded as 
a more primitive condition than that of either of the three forms of more 
eommon occurrence. 
(2) The spike of G. BucJiJiolzianum , normally with seven to nine nodes, 
»ay contain as few as two. J There is evidence that the nodes are not laid 
down in acropetal succession. § 
(3) A terminal flower occurs very commonly on both male and female 
spikes. II 
(4) Abnormal flowers occasionally show an accessory envelope,^ the 
outermost subtending a bud.** 
(5) In its general features, the vascular supply to the axis of the female 
flower resembles that to the axis of the spike.ft 
(6) Small vascular complexes found by Miss Berri<ige in the axis of the 
* Peai-son, 1915, C, p. 161. 
t Pearson, 1915, B, p. 312 ; 1915, C, p. 156. 
X Pearson, 1912, p. 614. • . 
§ Pearson, 1915, C, p. 158. 
11 Strasburger, 1872, p. 158; Pearson, 1915, C, p. 159. 
^ Pearson, 1915, p. 312. 
** Loc. cit., pi. 31, fig. 3. • 
ft Pearson, 1915, 0, p. 161. 
