System of the Female ‘Flowers' of Coniferae . 537 
of the axis, in the basal part of the cone, to supply the sterile 
seminiferous scale. It is much larger than the lower bundle 
of the four which supplies the bract of the fertile scale. On 
entering, or immediately before entering, the common stalk of 
the two organs, this bundle divides into two, of which the 
upper bundle supplies the sterile seminiferous scale, and 
subsequently divides up into several bundles. It will be seen 
that here a complete fusion of the two bundle-systems 
prevails, offering a wide difference from what obtains in the 
fertile part of the cone. But this is probably due to the loss 
of individuality of the system belonging to the seminiferous 
scale arising from the complete loss of function of the latter ; 
hence the more economical plan for the plant would be to 
unite, as far as possible, the two systems into one. Except 
at the base of the cone, the tracheides of the cylinder have 
dense, fine, spiral thickenings ; this is an interesting fact, as 
this character is otherwise only met with, as a general one, in 
vegetative organs, in the older types, like the Taxineae. 
In the lamina of the seminiferous scale of P. excelsa , Wall., 
many of the bundles exhibit a partially concentric structure, 
such as is frequently found in ovular integuments (Fig. 11). 
PODOCARPEAE. 
Microcachrys tetragona , Hook. 
This plant, belonging to the Podocarpeae, possesses beautiful 
rosy-red sporangium-bearing appendages, which are extremely 
succulent in character and terete in shape. Each fructification 
resembles in appearance a small mulberry. 
Celakovsky’s view, which appears to me the most tenable 
of all, of the structure of the female c flower ’ of the Podocar- 
peae is this : that the sporangium is the sole representative, 
as in all Conifers, of the sporophyll or carpel pertaining to 
a completely suppressed axillary bud ; that this sporangium 
has become carried up, for a longer or shorter distance, on to 
the subtending bract ; and that the outer integument is 
