526 Gibbs . — 0 ?i the Development of the 
brevifolia , Stapf., it forms one of the chief constituents of that association. 
There the ultimate branches are erect, the terminal portion showing the 
cupressoid form of leaves, but arranged radially and five-seriate. 
In the mixed forest of lower altitudes the graceful young shoots are 
always pendulous at the ends of the branches, bearing dorsiventral cupres- 
soid leaves, delicate and light green in colour, and biseriate in arrangement 
(Fig. 1, cup. /.). It is this drooping habit which gives such a pleasing 
and characteristic ‘Taxodium 5 appearance to the tree. The youth form is 
characterized by the biseriate leaves, and the ultimate branches are not 
drooping. This youth form was seen in Fiji up to 10 ft. high, the axis of 
the stem and of the branches being alone clothed with the imbricate leaves. 
These two forms of leaf are distinct in anatomical structure, the cupressoid 
being characterized by groups of idioblasts in the mesophyll. 
The strobili terminate small lateral peduncles, which arise in the axils 
of the imbricating foliage leaves of the stem. These peduncles, bearing 
only imbricating leaves, are curved just below the strobilus in the younger 
stage, but straighten later (Fig. 1, strob. 1 and 2). The leaves subtending 
the strobilus pass gradually into the bracts of the latter and spread out 
round it in both the Fijian (Fig. 4 ,s.l.) and Buitenzorg material (Figs. 1 and 
3, s . /.), though not in that from the subsummit zone of Kinabalu (Fig. 7, s. /.). 
The strobilus, as far as seen, may consist of two to four bracts (Figs. 4, 
5, and 7) of no specific arrangement ; the laminae of these bracts are long 
and terete, the bases swollen and verruculose. 
Pilger ( 40 , p. 15) describes the * receptaculum ’ in this species as formed 
of two bract bases, of which the lamina of one is fertile. Where there are 
two bracts to the strobilus, they are apparently opposite (Figs. 3, 7, and 8) ; 
and usually one is fertile, as Pilger describes, but twice in the limited 
material collected both have been found fertile (Fig. 2), and Blume (6) 
describes two, and rare cases of three being fertile. In the present case 
(Fig. 2) the two fertile bracts oppose a dorsal to a ventral surface, instead of 
a ventral to a ventral surface. 
This suggests that the opposite position is one of convenience, due to 
the exigencies of packing, and that the bracts really continue the spiral 
arrangement (Fig. 4) of the scale leaves of the peduncle, as these show 
a gradual transition from the small leaves clothing the peduncle to the 
larger ones immediately subtending the strobilus (Figs. 3 and 7). This 
transition is not so marked in later stages (Fig. 4) as the relative difference 
in size is masked by the growth of the strobilus ; but it shows a resemblance 
to Saxegothaea as figured by Noren ( 36 ) and Tison ( 57 , PL IX, Fig. 7). 
The lamina of the fertile bract is fused with the ovuliferous scale 
(Figs. 6 and 8) to the apex of the latter. The apex of the lamina in the 
very young stage is quite free and distinct (Figs, 2, 7, and 8). In one case 
it projected far above the scale (Fig. 3, lam. f. br.). In later stages it may 
