Thiselton-Dyer . — Morphological Notes. 785 
The position, however, becomes more complicated when we 
consider the remarkable case of a monstrous cone of Pinus 
lemoniana (P. Pinaster), described by Parlatore, from the 
Gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick 
(Ann. d. R. Mus. di St. nat. di Firenze, 1884). In this the 
seminiferous scale is replaced by a limited branch or fascicle of 
ordinary foliage leaves. The facts: — ‘ dimostrano chiara- 
mente come ne conviene lo stesso Signor Eichler, che nell’ 
organo squamoso o squama interna, secondo ch’ egli lo chiama, 
delle Abietinee, debba scorgersi non un asse soltanto secondo 
Popinione di Schleiden, ne un carpello come comunemente si 
crede, ma un ramo raccorciato con gli organi fogliacei.’ 
An important paper by Stenzel (Nova Acta, xxxviii, 1876) 
I have not had the opportunity of seeing. But it has been 
carefully summarized by the late Professor McNab (Journ. 
Bot. 1877, pp. 26—7). It was based on abnormal scales of the 
spruce ( Picea excelsa , Lk.) in which the seminiferous scale 
was replaced by an axillary bud. ‘ The two lateral bud-scales 
. . . are well developed, hard, brown, with the margin irregular 
and quite of the texture of the scales of the cone. By 
further tracing these abnormal buds it is found that at last all 
trace of the bud except the two lateral bud-scales disappears, 
and these become soldered more or less completely. . . . Farther 
down, the scales show no trace of a suture, and pass into the 
ordinary bifid scales of the cone.’ 
The conclusion arrived at was that the fruit-scale of the 
spruce, and also of the other true Abietineae , consists of the 
first two leaves of a suppressed bud developed in the axil of 
a bract. This is in agreement with the view of Von Mohl 
(187 1 ). 
Latterly Eichler changed his views, according to a note 
in the Gardeners’ Chronicle (l.c. pp. 264-6). ‘In his opinion 
the seed-scale is only an excrescence from the outer scale or 
bract, so that the two really constitute one leaf, and the bud 
or branch in the axil of the bracts in proliferous cones are 
not to be considered as transformed seed-scales, but as axillary 
buds to the composite leaf.’ If this were the true explana- 
