On the Development of the Female Strobilus in 
Podocarpus, 
BY 
L. S. GIBBS, F.L.S. 
With Plates XLIX-LIII. 
Introduction. 
B EFORE starting for New Zealand and Fiji in 1907, Professor Farmer 
suggested that it would be a good opportunity for collecting material 
of the Podocarpoideae, in order to work out the morphology of the so- 
called ‘ epimatium ’, ‘ aril ’, or integuments, characteristic of this group. 
Very little field work soon showed that the study of dried material on 
which the accepted morphological conception of this family of the Coni- 
fers had for the most part been based, had led to conclusions which an 
investigation of fresh material might considerably modify. Opportunity 
was therefore sought to collect all available stages in Phyllocladus , 
Dacrydium , and Podocarpus species. On return a certain amount of work 
was done which gave valuable data for collecting fresh material on 
a subsequent expedition to North Borneo in 1909. 
The results of both collections are embodied in this paper. 
In the following table the list is given of the species collected, with 
localities and dates, and the stages of the ovules on each occasion. It 
is hoped this will afford some indication to future workers, as to sequence 
of development. 
Material collected when travelling must necessarily be incomplete, and 
the methods can only be rough and ready. In this case it was mostly fixed 
in formalin, and subsequently run up in the laboratory to 75 per cent, 
alcohol, in which, with the addition of some glycerine, it was preserved. 
For the youngest stages this process answered very well, but with 
the growth of the female gametophyte before fertilization the formalin 
does not penetrate the ovular envelope quickly enough, and a contraction 
of the extremely delicate tissue of the prothallus results. Dissecting 
out the nucellus would therefore be the only satisfactory method, but an 
impossible one to carry out in the field. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVI. No. CII. April, 1912.] 
