System of the Female ‘ Flowers' of Coniferae. 545 
structure of the bundles of the appendages is similar to that 
of the bundles in the other groups. 
The Taxeae differ from the other groups in the fact that 
the sporangia occur in a position terminal instead of lateral 
to the axis on which they are borne. The anatomy points 
clearly to the fact that no axial foliar appendage of any kind 
exists upon which the sporangia are inserted, the cylinder 
of the axis being directly continuous into the base of the 
sporangium. This latter difference, however, amounts to 
very little if we regard, with Celakovsky, the seminiferous 
scale of the other groups, as being the morphological equi- 
valent of the outer integument of the Taxeae, which has 
become, with the exception of the Podocarpeae, vegetatively 
developed. In the Podocarpeae the relationship is precisely 
the same as in the Taxeae, with the exception of the axillary, 
instead of the terminal position of the sporangium. In this 
order the bundle-system belonging to the sporangium (which 
is, in all the groups , the sole representative of the sporophyll, 
according to the view I here adopt) becomes obvious owing 
to the fact that the latter gets carried, by the basal intercalary 
growth, on to the upper part of the bract. In the four other 
groups the bundle-system pertaining to the sporangia becomes 
very apparent owing to the vegetative development of their 
outer integuments which, in the form of the widely-expanded 
seminiferous scale, possesses a pronounced vascular tissue. 
Hence, a study of the course of the vascular bundles in the 
female 4 flowers 5 of this order tends towards a unification of 
the apparently, and from a superficial view, diverse structures 
which we find them exhibiting, and, although taken by itself, 
it will not explain their morphological significance, it will, 
nevertheless, greatly aid us towards some comprehension, if 
only a partial one, of the composition of these curious structures. 
An examination into the structure of the individual bundles 
traversing the appendages of the cone or 4 flower ’ affords us, 
as it seems to me, some clue as to the wider relationships 
of the plants concerned. 
The bundles of the 4 bract ’ or lowermost of the two 
