System of the Female ‘ Flowers ’ of Coniferae. 533 
to the seminiferous scale have an inverted collateral or a con- 
centric structure, and this structure persists right through the 
organ from base to tip. Many of the bundles possess a con- 
centric structure, in which the primary phloem occupies the 
centre, and xylem occurs in the form of two arcs on either 
side, or even extends right round the phloem (Fig. 7). Often, 
no xylem, but phloem only, occurs on the dorsal side of the 
scale : often, all the xylem of the bundle is on the dorsal 
inverted portion and there is none on the ventral side ; the 
phloem is on this side also sometimes absent. The dorsal 
portion appears to be primary, as in some bundles very small 
tracheides were seen situated between two radial rows of 
phloem ; some parts of the xylem are, doubtless, purely 
secondary, the primary portion having very likely become 
obsolete. Some of the concentric dorsal structures have the 
xylem in the centre entirely surrounded by phloem. 
Throughout the whole length of the seminiferous scale, 
small bundles, exhibiting the above-named structure in varying 
forms, occur between the sporangium and the bract, as in 
A. Cookii , R. Br. 
At each end of the vascular ellipse, in the lower part of the 
appendage, a large bundle occupies a lateral position, thus 
connecting the two systems of bundles, those of the bract and 
those of the seminiferous scale. In one part of their course 
some of the bundles of the bract assume a lateral position, one 
or two even becoming semi-concentric (in structure like those 
of the seminiferous scale), but this is exceptional. The bundles 
of the seminiferous scale pursue a continuous course from its 
base, past the insertion of the sporangium, up into the free 
laminar portion, with the exception of the four or five small 
bundles situated between the sporangium and the bract, which 
completely die out. All this is very similar to what obtains 
in A. Cookii , R. Br., although in the present species rather more 
easy of observation. 
In the present case also no bundles were seen to turn off 
and enter the sporangium. But in radial section two strands 
of phloem-like tissue were seen penetrating the basal (chalazal) 
N n 2 
