Anatomy of the Ovule and Seed in Gnetum Gnemon, 
with Notes on Gnetum funiculare. 
BY 
M. G. THODAY, 
Late Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Manchester and late Fellow of 
Newnham College , Cambridge. 
With Plate I and five Figures in the Text. 
Go Gnemon , 
S OME time ago I had the good fortune to examine inflorescences of 
Gnetum Gnemon bearing a few large seeds and a number of small 
abortive ovules, which Professor W. H. Lang kindly placed at my disposal, 
and later Dr. E. N. Thomas was so good as to hand over to me two seeds 
of an intermediate age, a little larger than those described by Miss Berridge. 
To recapitulate the structure of the female flower : — As in all species of 
Gnetum } there are three envelopes, the outer of which is succulent when 
ripe and is regarded here as probably foliar in nature ; the middle is complex 
in structure, and at its tip has an angled fibrous zone, and is here regarded as 
the outer integument, whilst the inner covering (or inner integument) is 
prolonged into a freely projecting micropylar tube. Miss Berridge in 
Gnetum Gnemon , and the author in Gnetum africanum , have drawn attention 
to the closure of the lumen in the micropylar tube and the outgrowth of 
tissue from its wall forming a flange projecting over the tip of the middle 
covering. 
The new material has enabled ine to follow in detail the earlier stages 
in the closure of the lumen of the micropylar tube and the outgrowth of 
tissue from its wall, while providing a most useful opportunity to investigate 
further remarkable changes which occur in the older seed, resulting in such 
a complicated and altered mature structure as could not have been 
anticipated from the study of the earlier stages. The mature structure for 
the first time described presents points of interest which emphasize the 
comparison already made with the Bennettitalean seeds. 
Early stages. Of the numerous small ovules which I examined, 
nearly all show some signs of the outgrowth of the cells lining the middle 
and lower portion of the micropylar tube. 
1 Strasburger, 1872, 1879 ; Lotsy, 3899 ; Berridge, 1911; Thoday, 1911 ; Pearson, 1915. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXV. No. CXXXVII. January, 1921.] 
