SPERMATOPHYTES 
231 
pound staminate strobili occur. The bractlets of this secondary axis, 
which invest the stamens, were interpreted as representing the perianth 
of a flower, and the presence of a perianth was regarded as another 
striking angiosperm character of Gnetales ; but if these bracts represent 
a perianth, those in the compound ovulate strobilus of Cordaitales also 
represent a perianth, as well as all bractlets on secondary axes of 
strobili. To extend the term perianth to include these vague conditions 
523 
524 
FIGS. 522-524. Gnetum latifolium: 522, branch bearing staminate strobili and the 
characteristic leaves; 523, part of staminate strobilus, showing the "connate" bracts, 
and in their axils numerous staminate "flowers"; 524, a single staminate "flower." 
After BLUME. 
is to make it difficult to define, and perhaps is to mislead as to the 
origin of the perianth of angiosperms. 
Ovulate strobilus. The ovulate strobili have the same general 
structure as the staminate, the so-called ovulate flowers arising in 
the axils of the bracts (figs. 514, 518, 526, 527). There is the 
same perianth structure observed in the staminate flowers, and in 
Tumboa there is said to appear outside of the ovule the rudiments 
of a stamen set 
