467 
Stiles . — The Podocarpeae. 
stage. At this time the ovule is inserted nearer the tip of the scale than 
the cone axis, being about three-fifths of the length of the scale from the 
cone axis. It is erect at this time, the micropyle facing directly upwards 
(PL XLVI, Fig. 9 ; Text-fig. 8,^). As in Saxegothaea , the integument and 
epimatium are in close connexion, and at this stage are only free from one 
another for about their upper half. The integument and epimatium both 
project a good way beyond the top of the nucellus. The integument 
is much longer on the side towards the cone axis and remote from the 
epimatium than on the other, and in every ovule examined the upper part 
of it had bent round through more than a right angle, so that it was actually 
pointing towards the scale on this side (PI. XLVI, Fig. 9). 
The single megaspore- mother-cell is seated in about the middle of the 
nucellus, there being about seven layers of cells above it in median section. 
The cells surrounding it are not much differentiated from the outer cells of 
the nucellus at this stage. 
At a later stage examined by Thomson, 1 the ovule has become quite 
reversed so that the micropyle faces the cone axis. 
The writer has examined a still later stage collected on mountain tops 
in Tasmania. The cone scales become swollen and fleshy and of a fine 
red colour ; they retain their individuality, not fusing together partially as 
in Saxegothaea. The seed is very small, being from 3 to 3 millimetres long 
and a little less in width ; the lower side is flat, while the upper is convex ; 
the seed thus has the shape of a somewhat flattened tetrahedron. The 
seed-coat differentiates into an outer thin membranous layer and an inner, 
thicker, hard sclerenchymatous layer. 
The vascular structure of the cone axis consists of a ring of bundles from 
which the sporophyll bundles arise by division as in Saxegothaea. As in 
the vegetative stems of this plant there are no resin canals, so there are none 
in the cone axis. Worsdell 2 has described the vascular system of this cone 
scale as consisting of two distinct bundles very close together : a lower one 
serving the sporophyll, and an upper one serving the ovule. According to 
Thomson 3 a single bundle leaves the cone axis and gives off a single supply 
bundle from its upper surface ; the orientation of the xylem and phloem of 
the latter is inverse as compared with that of the sporophyll bundle. In 
the old scales I have examined, a single bundle leaves the axis of the cone, 
and the ovular supply appears on its upper surface very shortly after the 
entrance of the sporophyll supply into the sporophyll. It lies so close to 
the latter, however, even up to the insertion of the ovule, that ovular and 
sporophyll supply might be considered one bundle. Ultimately, the ovular 
supply bends obliquely upwards and bifurcates near the base of the ovule, 
the divisions entering the base of the integument. A large resin duct, or 
1 Thomson (’09 2 ), p. 349. 2 Worsdell (’99), p. 538. 
3 Thomson (’09 2 ), p. 349. 
