System of the Female ‘ Flowers' of Coniferae. 541 
the seminiferous scale, and one to the bract ; the former have 
inverted orientation (Fig. 17). 
On entering the seminiferous scale the two bundles branch 
up into a number, and spread right across the whole width of 
the scale (Figs. 20, 21). Branches from these bundles bend 
back, about two-thirds of the way up the scale, towards the 
place of insertion of the sporangia, but none were observed to 
enter these latter (Fig. 16). These bundles which supply the 
sporangia have a peculiar structure. They are all more or 
less concentric , most of them being incompletely so (Fig. 20) ; 
often several small ones are grouped together in an irregular 
fashion. The bundles which do not supply the sporangia are 
normally collateral, but some are of horse-shoe form. All 
possess a fair amount of centripetal xylem , consisting of similar 
tracheides to those of the abundant transfusion-tissue, viz. of 
angular contour and large size. 
The bundle which enters the bract also branches. The 
larger of these bundles have centripetal xylem ; many rudi- 
mentary strands, consisting of xylem only, are irregularly 
scattered about, many of them contiguous to the mucilage- 
canals. 
Cryptomeria japonica , D. Don. 
The female cones of this plant are rounded in shape and 
present appendages which are clearly divided into dorsal 
and ventral portions, the latter, as in Sciadopitys , being some- 
what longer than the former, and representing the ‘seminiferous 
scale ’ ; it bears two elongated sporangia at its base. 
Two or three bundles are given off from the central cylinder 
of the axis. Simultaneously one of the bundles gives off 
a branch, which, passing to the upper side, becomes, with its 
inverted orientation, the bundle of the seminiferous scale. 
The other bundle (when two only arise from the cylinder) 
branches almost at the same time, so that, eventually, four 
bundles enter the appendage grouped together as a small 
cylinder. 
After entering the appendage, the two lateral bundles 
