Female Strohilus in Podocarpus. 523 
as always orthotropous, erect in the Gnetaceae, Taxineae, Cupressineae and 
Cycas, horizontal in the other Cycads and Saxegothaea , reversed in Podo- 
carpns , Pineae, Araucariae, and Sequoiae. 
In Podocarpus , he describes the fertile bract as carrying a large ovuli- 
ferous scale, which covers, like a hood, a reversed orthotropous ovule with 
one integument, and which is fused its whole length with the scale. 
From the Abietineae to the Taxineae, through Saxegothaea and the 
Podocarps, he traces a general tendency of the ovuliferous scale to surround, 
in hood-like fashion, the ovule or ovules which it carries, fusing more and 
more till finally it merges in the ovular integument in Torreya and 
Cephalotaxus. 
Schumann, in 1902 ( 46 , p. 60), looks upon Podocarpus as not only 
distinguished by anatropous ovules, taking the bract at the base as a carpel, 
but these ovules also possess two integuments, of which it can be determined 
with ‘positive certainty’ that the second has arisen from the aril. The 
sequence of these conclusions is rather involved, and he himself refers 
to the difficulty in arriving at the same, dried material being alone 
available. 
Worsdell, W. C., in 1900 ( 60 , p. 42), cites Podocarpus as an anatropous 
ovule which is fused with the bract, and extends far beyond the latter, 
owing to its being carried up on a long stalk. It has two integuments, of 
which the outer is fleshy or coloured. In some species the bracts and axis 
are fused into a succulent whole. 
Pilger, in 1903 ( 40 , p. 2), describes the ovule of the Podocarpoideae 
as reversed, with the micropyle lying towards the base of the carpel, 
furnished with an ‘ epimatium i. e. an excrescence in various ways con- 
nected with the carpel (‘ excrescentia carpidii vario modo connata ’). The 
testa of the seed is formed from the integument and ‘ epimatium ’. 
He thus gets over the difficulty of the morphological nature of the 
protective envelope of the Podocarp seeds, by designating it an organ sui 
generis , peculiar to the genus Podocarpoideae, consequently of so much 
importance that the systematic sequence in this group is arranged according 
to its degree of development. This, through Dacrydium , Microcachrys , and 
Saxegothaea , attains its maximum in Podocarpus , in which family it is curved 
and completely fused with the integument. 
He considers it incorrect to call the ‘epimatium ’ an outer integument, 
and so create a contrast (‘ Gegensatz ’) to the Pinaceae, which is also the case 
with the Taxaceae. To describe the ovule of Podocarpus as anatropous is also 
questionable (‘ angangig ’), as that constitutes an inadmissible (‘ unzulassig’) 
comparison with the Angiosperms, necessitating a laterally fused funicle, 
whereas the ovule hangs direct from the ‘ epimatium which surrounds it 
on both sides. 
Pilger concludes (p. 38) that the Podocarps show greater affinity to the 
