NOTES 
NOTE ON THE PRESENCE OF A ‘TENT-POLE’ IN THE SEED OF 
CEPHALOTAXUS PEDUNCULATA. — In a recent paper published in the ‘ Annals 
of Botany ’ 1 the view was expressed that, apart from Ginkgo , the nearest known 
relatives of the genera Taxus , Torreya , and Cephalotaxus are to be sought among the 
Palaeozoic group Cordaitales. The relatively isolated position of the three genera 
has also been urged in another paper , 2 in which the suggestion has been ventured 
that in view of .their structural differences from the great majority of Conifers, coupled 
with certain archaic features reminiscent of Palaeozoic times, these three genera 
deserve to rank as an independent phylum (Taxales) co-ordinate with the Ginkgoales 
and the Coniferales (in the restricted sense). Like Ginkgo biioba , in fact, the Taxales 
were claimed as * links with the past \ 
The object of the present note is to draw attention to another fact which appears 
considerably to strengthen the Cordaitalean affinity. This is the presence, in the seed 
of Cephalotaxus pedunculata , of a small apical prolongation of the female prothallus 
Fro. i. Cephalotaxus pedunculata. Fig. 2. Cycadinocarpus augustodunensis. 
t.p. — tent-pole, x = position of proembryo. (Modified from Renault.) 
which, surrounded by a moat-like depression into which the archegonia open, props 
up the nucellar membrane somewhat like a ‘ tent-pole ’. (The comparison of this 
process to a £ tent-pole , first made by Hirash ;i while describing it in Ginkgo , is so 
appropriate that this convenient term may usefully be adopted as a technical name.) 
This apparently insignificant organ of obscure function has long been known as 
a notable point in the structure of the few petrified seeds that have been found 
1 Sahni, B. : On Certain Archaic Features in the Seed of Taxus , &c. Ann. Bot., xxxiv. 
131, 1920. 
2 Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., ccx. 253, 1920. 
Hirase, S. : Etudes sur la fecondation et l’embryogenie du Ginkgo biioba. Journ. Coll. Sci., 
Imp. Univ., Tokyo, 1895. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXV. No. CXXXVIII. April, 1921.I 
