io Scott . — On the Fertile Shoots of 
a subtending bract. The distinction between the two would, however, be 
scarcely recognizable in specimens preserved as impressions, and the 
difference is of little significance. 
We now come to the comparison of the actual floral buds or branches 
with those of Cordaianthus , and here there is more opportunity for detailed 
correlation, for fairly full data are supplied by the work of Renault and. 
especially by the later investigations of Bertrand, while, so far as I know, 
no previous observer has described the structure of the main axis of the 
inflorescence. Renault ( 1879 , PL XVII, Fig. i) shows a transverse section of 
the axis of Cordaianthus subglomeratus , with some indication of the vascular 
ring, but here there is little analogy with our specimens, as the floral buds 
are not distichously arranged. 
Renault ( 1879 ) has little to say about the structure of the axis and 
bracts of the floral buds ; his attention was concentrated on the stamens 
and ovules. His figures, however, show the bracts arranged spirally in 
numerous cycles, each bract having a single vascular strand ( 1 . c., PL XVI, 
Figs.|i2-i5 ; PL XVII, Figs. 1-3, 11, 13, 14). The bracts of the female catkin 
are described as thicker and more coriaceous than those of the male 
(l.c., p. 313). 
Much fuller details are given by the late Professor C. E. Bertrand in his 
paper on the Female Bud of Cordaites (Bertrand, 1911 ). His observations 
are confined to the detached floral bud or catkin (which he sometimes calls 
the ‘ inflorescence ’), and there is no reference to the main axis, which appears 
not to be represented among Renault’s preparations on which the account 
is based. 
The axis of the young bud, he says, has no free surface ; it is covered 
by the bases of the bracts ( 1 . c., p. 25). The vascular ring consists of about 
ten isolated strands surrounding a pith. Each strand includes on the 
inner side an irregular group of spiral elements, with 2-4 groups of radially 
arranged secondary elements on the exterior. The illustration ( 1 . c., PL V, 
Fig. 37) shows that the structure of the stele of the bud essentially agree.' 
with that in our specimens (cf. PL III, Fig. 17). A detailed comparison o 
the other tissues is superfluous, as the preservation is poor both in his 
material and ours. 
The bracts in Renault’s specimens are remarkably like ours. Those 
figured by Bertrand ( 1 . c., PL V, Fig. 43) are almost identical with the 
bracts of the bud shown in PL I, Fig. 2 (see also Text-fig. 2) ; the form 
of those cut near the base is the same, and that of the more distal bracts 
very nearly so. The bracts, however, are much less numerous in our 
specimens, perhaps because some are lost. The structure of the bracts in 
the French specimens is described by Bertrand in great detail (l.c., pp. 30-7). 
Here it may suffice to mention that in the free, middle part, the bract has 
two bands of fibres on the distal face, and a less developed fibrous layer 
