System of the Female ‘Flowers' of Coniferae. 543 
orientation the reverse of that of the bract-bundle (Figs. 23 
and 24). This bundle then branches further (Fig. 25). 
The two lateral bundles give off a number of branches 
which eventually spread round the whole contour of the 
double scale, the original median bundle of the three which 
left the cylinder of the axis remaining right in the centre of 
the scale (Figs. 25 and 26). Strasburger 1 suggests from this 
that the tissues of the seminiferous scale completely enwrap 
those of the bract. 
There are thus a number of bundles both in the bract and 
the seminiferous scale. The structure of all appears to be 
endarch. No bundles were observed to enter the sporangia. 
A bundle or two also passes down into the lower reflexed 
lobe of the bract. 
Conclusions. 
Although, as was a foregone conclusion, the study of the 
anatomical characters of the female organs of Coniferae has 
failed to solve the problem of the real nature and morphology 
of these organs, it has, nevertheless, not been without its 
value, both as a means of here and there opening the way for 
plausible suggestions for the solution of the problem, and also 
as throwing some light upon the phylogenetic relationships 
of the order as a whole. 
In Arattcaria Cookii , R. Br., and A. Bidwillii , Hook., the 
very distinct presence in the sporangiferous appendage of 
the cone, of a double system of bundles, each system being 
independent of the other almost (or quite) from the central 
cylinder of the axis outward, the upper system, moreover, 
having its bundles orientated the reverse way to those of the 
lower, suggest strongly, that the appendage consists, not of 
one, but of two foliar organs, corresponding to the bract and 
the seminiferous scale in the Abietineae, which are only 
adnate at the very base, and whose bundles originate as 
Angiospermen und Gymnospermen, p. 83. 
