540 
Gibbs . — - On the Development of the 
supply of the ovule, in the absence of all swelling and proliferation of tissue 
in the bract bases or so-called * receptaculum ’ of the axis. A double apex 
is often apparent in the ovuliferous scale (Fig. 20, 0. s.), this appearance being 
caused by contraction of the mesophyll tissue between the two vascular 
bundles, as previously noted for P. vitiensis (see p. 536). 
Histology. In longitudinal section the ovuliferous scale is marked by 
a well-developed epidermis with stomata. Pilger ( 40 , p. 23) notes that in 
§ Stachycarpus a thick stone-cell area arises evidently from the integument, 
but it will be seen that this area arises in the ovuliferous scale (Fig. 22, o. s. 
stone cl), the cells occurring in groups of two or three (Fig. 22) at regular 
intervals in the mesophyll. In this species stone cells were not found in the 
foliage leaves. The vascular system tissue consists of bundles which arise in 
the above-described apex of the scale. They lie facing each other, or phloem 
to phloem, separated at the apex by a little mesophyll. The separation in- 
creases as they descend till they expand at the base of the ovule in a ring 
of branching strands. Each bundle then divides so that four strands, all show- 
ing inverted orientation, and accompanied by small resin canals, surround 
the ovule in the lamina of the ovuliferous scale. On the dorsal side, or mid- 
rib region, below the ovular insertion, the two bundles approach each other 
again, but laterally, that is to say, side to side, until in the micropylar region 
the xylems almost converge, the phloem gradually rotating outwards. 
Phloem strands penetrate to the nucellus (Fig. 22 , pk.str.) as described 
in P. imbricata and P. vitiensis. 
The integument is outlined by tannin and starch cells round its whole 
periphery (PI. LIII, Fig. 75), and at the apex, at the micropyle, shows 
ingrowth of lignified closing cells (PI. L, Fig. 22 a } tig. c. inti), as Saxton 
has described for Widdringtonia ( 42 , p. 32), the cells similarly showing no 
septation and not entirely closing the opening. 
The apex of the nucellus is prolonged, the cells containing starch, and 
the cell-walls show slight collenchymatous thickening (PI. LIII, Fig. 74). It 
is this difference in texture and contents which is the cause of the slight con- 
traction apparent at the base of the apex (PL LIII, Fig. 75), which is some- 
times so marked in species where the apex is long, that the nucellus appears 
bottle-shaped, and this cause must always be allowed for in the presence of 
apparently abnormal shape. Pollen-tubes are seen penetrating the stigmatic 
apex (Fig. 75). These tubes extend above the actual apex, still attached 
to the spore-case ; the loose cells forming the stigmatic surface of the 
extreme apex on pollination gradually become contracted and pressed 
together, the upper portion of the tube being in consequence exposed. 
The base is outlined by the nutritive zone (Fig. 74). The tapetum is 
well marked in the region of the growing gametophyte (Figs. 74 and 75), 
which in Fig. 75 has absorbed nearly the whole of the body of the nucellus. 
In Fig. 75 the ? gametophyte is almost filled by the centripetal growth 
of the endosperm, in which cell-wall formation is beginning, but so much 
