Female Strobilus in Podocarpus. 
543 
In the ovuliferous scale groups of stone cells are arranged regularly in 
the mesophyll as in P. spicata , but, unlike that species, they also occur 
in the mesophyll of the foliage leaves. The vascular strands start from 
hypodermal groups of tracheides (Fig. 34) at the apex of the scale and 
spread ring-like round the base of the ovule, where a phloem strand 
penetrates to the base of the nucellus, as in P. imbricata , vitiensis , and 
spicata. The bundles show no secondary branching in the lamina of 
the scale (Fig. 29, v. b. 0 . s.). 
The integument shows the greatest differentiation yet met with, as 
the peripheral zone of tannin cells tends to elongate laterally, broadening 
out towards the centre and tapering towards the micropyle (Fig. 29, tan. c.). 
This regular arrangement is peculiar to this species amongst all those 
included in the present investigation. 
Of the nucellus all but the apex, of which the cells show thickening 
of the cell-walls and starch contents, is absorbed by the $ gametophyte. 
The apex is penetrated by numerous pollen-tubes, the spore-cases being 
still attached to the stigmatic surface. The pollen-tubes penetrate more 
or less vertically, crushing the tissue on either side as the contents become 
absorbed. In all species this crushing of the thick cell-walls gives a cer- 
tain stability to the apex, which persists till the embryo stage, forming 
a little brown cap which can be removed from the apex of the $ pro- 
thallus when the latter is dissected out. 
The ? gametophyte is very contracted in the material available, but 
cell-wall formation can be traced. 
It is limited by a megaspore membrane of two layers, the outer 
one striate. 
§ Eupodocarpus. 
Flores feminei singidi axillares , sub-sessiles vel plerumque longius 
peduncidati ; receptacidum evolutum , saepe basi foliolis 2 angustis instructum . 
In § Eupodocarpus the strobilus occurs, as usual, in the axils of the 
lower foliage leaves of lateral shoots. In these shoots there is always 
a well-marked fertile area of about an inch to an inch and a half. Above 
and below this area no strobili are to be found. It is only noticeable in 
the young wood up to pollination stage, as after that the unfertilized 
strobili drop off in great numbers, and it is no longer apparent that every 
leaf in this limited region bears a cone in its axil. 
The strobilus may be almost sessile or pedunculate. If pedunculate 
the peduncle is naked, the strobilus consisting of two to six bracts, the 
two lower ones in some species (which Pilger in his monograph places 
first, and whose presence he considers divides § EUPODOCARPUS into two 
large groups, geographically separated ( 40 , p. 14)) being thin, strap-like, 
and generally unmodified. The upper bracts show the small laminae and 
relatively large bases, which swell up as growth proceeds, and fuse with 
