534 
Gibbs „ — On the Development of the 
( 1 . c., p. 23) are peculiar to § STACHYCARPUS (PI. LIII, Fig. 75) in the seed- 
coat, proved absent in P. vitiensis. 
The peduncle of P. nagi , as figured by Pilger ( 40 , p. 61, Fig. D) and in 
material examined at the British Museum, is thick and shows scars, suggest- 
ing a resemblance to older stages of P. vitiensis (PI. XLIX, Fig. 16), but 
it is difficult in this group to draw conclusions from dried or mature material. 
The branching of the peduncle, so accentuated in the Fijian plant 
(Fig. 14), is also to a certain degree represented in § NaGEIA. 
It is therefore thought advisable to follow Pilger, and leave P. vitiensis 
provisionally in § NAGEIA, though the very characteristic branching of the 
peduncle (Fig. 14), the four vascular bundles of the ovuliferous scale 
(PI. LIII, Fig. 73), and the semicircular ridge which terminates it (PI. XLIX, 
Fig. 1 6, o. j.), together with the beak-like prolongation of the nucellus into 
the micropyle, are features which seem to distinguish it from all the other 
sections (PI. L, Fig. 18, nuc-l). 
Morphology. This species, the Dakua Salu Salu of the Fijians, is the 
most beautiful forest tree of that country, or, in the writers estimation, of 
the Conifers of the world. Moreover, the wood is the most valuable of the 
Fijian timbers, being not over hard and very durable. The magnificent 
symmetry of this species is striking. The splendid shaft, clothed in smooth 
white bark, rises sheer through the surrounding forest to expand in a crown 
of spreading branches, of which the ultimate shoots bear leaves so evenly 
arranged that they suggest pinnules on the frond of a huge fern. These 
leaves are light green in colour, coriaceous and shining in texture. 
The strobili are borne on branching peduncles which arise on the axils 
of the lower leaves of the shoot in great profusion. The frond-like habit 
of the branches exposes the strobili, which are conspicuous from their bright 
magenta colour and glaucous bloom. 
This colour, according to Cheeseman ( 14 , p. 650), is also characteristic 
of P. f err ugine a. 
These strobili were collected from one tree, and show two stages, as 
already described for P. imbricata (see p. 525). The current year’s cone 
shows the ovule in the unmodified nucellus or pre-pollination stage (Fig. 15), 
which can be compared with the longitudinal section given for P. fer- 
ruginea , the structure being identical in both cases (PI. LIII, Fig. 77). 
These cones were found at the apex of the axis on the youngest wood, 
on which the leaves had not yet expanded. 
In a few cases ovules in the dividing macrospore stage were found on the 
same axis as the older cones, as figured for P. imbricata (PI. XLIX, Fig. 1, 
strob . 1 and 2). These older cones (Fig. 16) occur in the axils of the lower 
leaves of the secondary branches of the immediately older wood (Fig. 14, 
strobi). Whether this wood is last year’s or not it would be impossible to 
decide from a single observation on a tropical tree of which no data for judging 
