468 
Stiles. — The Podoca rpeae. 
rather resin gland, for it ends blindly in both directions, is present on the 
under side of the sporophyll bundle. 
V. Dacrydium. 
i. D. Franklini . The megasporangiate strobili of this plant are 
terminal on the branches bearing them, and consist each of a lax spike of 
eight or nine megasporophylls separated by conspicuous internodes. 1 Each 
sporophyll is a small structure, in the stage examined about 1*5 mm. long 
and about 1 mm. wide, and is somewhat triangular in shape, and bears 
a single ovule medianly placed on the upper surface. Strasburger, 2 who 
has recorded some observations on this species, states that the ovule arises 
in the axil of the sporophyll. In the material examined by the writer the 
ovule was towards the tip of the sporophyll, much as in Microcachrys. In 
another matter the sporophyll is very reminiscent of that of the latter 
genus, for it contains a resin cavity which ends blindly in both directions, 
resin canals being absent in the cone axis as in the vegetative stem. 
The ovule in the stage examined was about half-reversed ; that is, its 
axis made an angle of about half a right angle with the cone scale, the 
micropyle pointing inwards. As in Saxegothaea and Microcachrys the 
nucellus is free from the integument for most of its length, and the 
epimatium only partially surrounds the integument just as in those 
genera. It certainly does not completely surround the integument, as 
Tison asserts to be the case in Dacrydium? The tip of the sporophyll 
curves up into a point just behind the epimatium, and gives much the 
appearance of a third integument, and in this respect again it is not unlike 
Microcachrys . 
The axis of the fructification contains a ring of five or six small 
bundles, from which those of the sporophylls are given off. At about the 
level of the extreme base of the slightly decurrent sporophyll a resin duct 
appears on the phloem side of the bundle nearest the sporophyll. A very 
little higher up this bundle divides into three, the two lateral ones being 
smaller. The central bundle first passes out into the sporophyll accom- 
panied on its under side by a resin canal, and a very little higher up the 
two lateral ones pass out also. These form the ovular supply and have 
their xylem and phloem with inverse orientation, as in Saxegothaea and 
Microcachrys. As in these genera also they are not accompanied by resin 
ducts (PI. XLVII, Fig. 22). The two ovular supply bundles terminate 
below the nucellus. At the stages examined the xylem of the sporophylls is 
very little lignified. It is noteworthy that the ovular supply bundles attach 
themselves laterally to the sporophyll bundle at the extreme base of the 
sporophyll, much as is the case with the lateral bundles of the ovular 
1 For figures see Parlatore (’64), Tav. II, Figs. 40-54. 
2 Strasburger (’ 79 ), p. 76. 3 Tison (’ 09 ), p. 147. 
