538 Worsdell.— Observations on the Vascular 
present in a normal form and not, as in the Abietineae, vege- 
tatively developed into the seminiferous scale. There is 
nothing in the following anatomical investigation to render 
this view anything but quite probably true. 
The sporangium is seated near the tip of the appendage, 
and is inverted. The other integument, or aril, is represented 
by a small, scale-like outgrowth occurring on the upper, 
distal side only of the sporangium (Fig. 12). 
The axis of the cone contains several small, widely sepa- 
rated bundles. 
In the upper part of the appendage, at the level of the 
insertion of the sporangium, and where the red colour is 
most conspicuous, there are about two layers of cells, lying 
below the sclerotic hypoderm, which are palisade-like in 
form, containing a great number of oil-globules of very 
varying sizes, some of which are very amorphous in shape ; 
these are coloured red by alkannin, and dissolved by potash. 
Many of these cells are yellow in colour from the tannin they 
contain, which substance appears to stain deeply with safranin. 
The epidermis possesses a fairly thick cuticle. In the rest of 
the organ the cells are uniform throughout in shape and 
contents. Immediately surrounding the bundle the cells are 
very much smaller. 
As regards the vascular structure of the appendage, there 
are, in spite of the assertions of Eichler and others, two 
distinct systems of bundles, one pertaining to the sporangium, 
the other to the appendage or bract. But the former is 
extremely minute and rudimentary. At the junction of the 
bract-bundle with the cylinder of the axis the small bundle 
pertaining to the sporangium is only represented by a few 
scarcely visible, non-staining, narrow tracheides with loose 
spiral thickenings, following the course of the bract-bundle, 
and either separated by a short space from, or closely ap- 
proximated to, its protoxylem. While the connexion between 
the bract-bundle and the cylinder is very often perfectly 
distinct, the same was never actually observed in the case 
of the small bundle of the sporangium. In one case the 
