53i 
Female Strobilus in Podocarpus . 
Coker ( 15 ) records no megaspore membrane for P. coriacea. Thomson 
( 55 , p. 42) in P. coriacea remarks on the absence of this membrane in the 
early embryo stage, and also in P. Mokoyi in mature condition, and 
questions if the coat is present in the earliest stages. He concludes that 
Dacrydium , in which the megaspore membrane is well developed, must 
be much more primitive than Podocarpus from the supposed absence of 
this feature of the latter ( 1 . c., p. 54). In the present case it has been 
seen in normal development in every species examined, which suggests that 
P. coriacea is an exception in the order in this respect, as it is also in the 
absence of a tapetum. 
The one prothallus available from Fijian material, dissected out of 
a normally developed strobilus, proved to be sterile. A cavity imme- 
diately above the small-celled central cylinder replaced the archegonia. 
No tracheides occurred in this tissue, in which the cells were two to four 
nucleate. The larger peripheral cells were uni- to binucleate and con- 
tained very few starch grains. There were, however, many tannin cells, 
which was not the case in the one described above, from Buitenzorg. 
A sterile prothallus from the subsummit zone of Kinabalu (11,500 ft), 
dark brown in colour on the surface, showed on sectioning almost every cell 
with tannin contents, the central cylinder being alone excepted. 
In another prothallus, of which the name of the species was lost, seven 
archegonia were present, two being in one jacket (Fig. 6 b). In this case 
there was no contraction of tissue, and the archegonia lay with their 
necks plane to the apical surface of the prothallus in two distinct groups. 
Podocarpus dacrydioides . 
Morphology. This species, familiarly called Kahikatea or White Pine, 
is a well-known New Zealand tree. In this list- it is the only species which 
grows gregariously, forming dense forests in swampy localities, and pre- 
dominating along river beds, where, before the usual drastic clearing on 
so-called ‘ settlement ’, it must have been a valuable agent in fixing shingle 
banks, which now spread unrestricted over miles of country. In the mixed 
forest it takes its chance with the other members of an association, in which 
no one species seems able to prevail. It is a slender tree, with the straight 
trunk and the small conical crown so characteristic of the New Zealand mixed 
forest type. According to Cheeseman ( 14 , p. 651) the tree may attain the 
height of 150 feet, and he describes the wood as straight-grained and 
easily worked, but not durable if exposed to damp. It is general in 
lowland forest through the three islands. 
The young strobili are very abundantly produced in October and 
November. They are minute, but conspicuous from the waxy bloom 
