464 
Stiles . — The Podocarpeae. 
epimatium is an outgrowth of the cone scale and has no nearer connexion 
with the integument of the ovule, but Noren refrains from disputing it, 
simply stating that he does not regard the question as settled. 1 In material 
a little older, Tison 2 confirms Noren’s observations on this point. Tison’s 
observations were made on cones about three weeks before pollination. By 
this time the ovule is lodged in a cavity at the base of the bract. Tison 
states that the ovule and epimatium are borne on the upper extremity, 
and appear to be the prolongation and termination of a mass of tissue 
differentiated from that of the cone scale. This may be so, but Tison’s 
figures, cited to support this statement, do not in my opinion confirm it. 
This tissue is that undergoing rapid intercalary growth, as a result of which 
the ovule is carried further away from the axis, and becomes completely 
reversed, with the micropyle facing the axis (Text-fig. 8, d). As Tison 
remarks, the ovule in the very young cone is probably borne erect at the 
base of the scale, and it is by the continued intercalary growth at the base 
of the scale that the ovule comes to occupy a position some distance from 
the axis. Thus in the stage described and figured by Noren, the ovule 
is about one-eighth the length of the scale from the axis ; in that described 
by Tison it is not less than one-fifth the length of the scale away, while at the 
time of pollination it may be as much as, or more than, one-third of the length 
of the cone scale from the axis. The later appearance of the cone has been 
described by Lindley 3 and Pilger. 4 The cone scales appear to fuse into an 
irregularly globose fleshy mass about a centimetre long ; the scales are 
fused together at their base, but the acute tips remain free. In this fleshy 
mass are included the seeds, to about the number of six, so that a large 
number of ovules evidently fail to develop. 
The structure of the ovule itself has been most minutely described 
by Noren. Tison’s later description is almost identical with Noren’s. The 
nucellus for the great part of its length is free from the integument. It is 
not circular in transverse section, but elliptical, the longer diameter being 
the one transverse to the cone scale. 
Before the time of pollination the nucellus grows at a greater rate than 
the integument and epimatium, so that by the time pollination takes place 
it not only completely fills the micropyle, but projects beyond it so as 
to form a large stigmatic surface. 5 Noren has described the peculiar mode 
of pollination in this species. Pollen, besides falling on the nucellus itself, 
may get lodged in the cavity round the ovule, in which case the pollen-tube 
may grow over the tissues of the integument and epimatium into the micro- 
pyle. Besides the interest attaching to such a peculiar mode of pollination, 
1 Nor&i (’08), p. 109. 2 Tison (’09), p. 143. 
3 Lindley (’51). 4 Pilger (’08), p. 42. 
5 Tison (’08), p. 137; Noren (’08), p. no, Figs. 19 and 20; Stiles (’08), p. 214, Fig. 31 ; 
Tison (’09), p. 143, Figs. 8 and 9. 
