45 2 
Stiles . — T he Podocarpeae. 
in Taxus , that the phloem fibres early show thick walls, and that resin 
canals are absent from the wood or phloem . 1 Bertrand’s observations were 
limited to Dacrydium and P odocarpus , but in Saxegothaea and Microcachrys 
his statement with regard to the absence of resin canals in the wood and 
phloem holds equally well. 
On the nature of the pitting, Bertrand only remarks that all the 
tracheides do not have spiral thickenings as in Taxus . 2 Lately considerable 
attention has been directed to the nature and distribution of bordered pits 
on the walls of the tracheides. Beust 3 and Gothan 4 find that the pits in 
Saxegothaea are uniseriate, the pits being frequently in close contact and 
flattened above and below along the line of junction. This observation the 
writer was able to confirm . 6 Very occasionally the pitting is for a short 
distance biseriate, when the pits are close together and alternate. As 
a result of flattening along the line of contact they have a partially hexa- 
gonal shape. 
Gothan 6 has observed this biseriate arrangement of the pits in the 
stem of Dacrydium cupressinum and two other species of the genus. I have 
examined the stem of Dacrydium cupressinum , but have not been able to 
confirm this statement. No doubt, as in Saxegothaea , the occurrence of 
the biseriate arrangement, at any rate in stems not many years old, is 
rather rare. 
The writer has examined the wood of the fairly young stems of several 
species of Podocarpus. The pitting on the radial walls is uniseriate, and 
although the pits are sometimes in contact, this is not always the case, as 
variations in this respect may occur in the tracheides of the same section . 7 
That such a variation should occur is of importance when it is considered 
that the distribution of pitting is one of the characters used in the deter- 
mination of fossil woods. On the tangential walls of the tracheides of the 
summer wood conspicuous and numerous large simple pits (‘ Eiporen ’) 
occur . 8 
The medullary rays throughout the order consist of parenchymatous 
cells only. They are only one cell wide, and in the young stems, at any 
rate, are not often more than five cells deep. 
Gothan 9 has made observations on the medullary ray pitting, a 
character on which he lays much stress in the determination of Coniferous 
woods. He finds four types of medullary ray pitting in the Podocarpeae. 
i. Saxegothaea has the tangential walls of the medullary ray cells 
smooth, but the horizontal walls have numerous small simple pits. 
1 Bertrand, 1. c. 2 1. c. 3 Beust (’84). 
4 Gothan (’05), p. 57. 5 Stiles (’08), p. 210. 
3 Gothan, 1. c. 7 Cf. Gerry (’10), PI. XIII, Fig. 2. 
8 Penhallow (’07), p. 217, for Podocarpus macrophyllus ; Baker and Smith (’10), p. 405, Fig. 
270, for Dacrydium Franklini. 
9 Gothan (’05). 
