‘ Flowers' of Cephalotaxus . 641 
a terminal ovule, preceded by two or three pairs of bracts, 
to be homologous with a single ovule of Cephalotaxus , this 
latter being terminal to an axis whose lateral appendages 
have become completely abortive. He regarded the ovules 
of Ginkgo in the same light, each representing in itself a flower 
of which the ‘ collar ’ at the base is probably equivalent to 
a pair of bracts. It is probable, however, that he did not 
always retain these views, though I am unaware that he ever 
made any emendations to them. 
Strasburger 1 holds the same view as Eichler, regarding the 
two axillary ovules of Cephalotaxus seated on their short axis 
as constituting an inflorescence, each ovule representing the 
remnant of a secondary ovuliferous shoot like that of Taxus, 
the primary shoot between the two rudimentary axes being 
entirely suppressed. For Ginkgo and Phyllocladus he likewise 
affords us the same explanation, but the long-stalked ‘ inflores- 
cence’ of the former, especially when it bears two pairs of 
ovules, decussately arranged, is also comparable to the entire 
cone of Cephalotaxus. 
Van Tieghem’s 2 view is very different indeed from that of 
either of the above authors ; he interprets the axillary 
■ inflorescence ’ of Strasburger as the only leaf of a suppressed 
shoot, whose lamina has become reduced to the two ovules, 
in the same way as he regards the ovule of Taxus as the only 
leaf of an abortive tertiary axis. For Ginkgo he has precisely 
the same definition as for Cephalotaxus. 
For myself, however, the views as to the morphology of the 
female flowers in this group which have been put forward by 
Celakovsky 3 are the only tenable and true ones. 
In their light we see that the primary shoot of Taxus and 
Torreya (and I have already in a previous memoir cited these 
various clearly-defined relationships 4 ) is the homologue of the 
1 Strasburger, Angiospermen und Gymnospermen, 1879, P- 7 1 - 
2 Van Tieghem, Ann. d. Sci. Nat., Bot., 5® ser., vol. x, 1869, p. 281. 
3 Celakovsky, ‘ Die Gymnospermen,’ &c. Abhandl. d. kgl. bohm. Ges. d. Wiss., 
vol. iv, 1890. 
4 Worsdell, ‘The Structure of the Female Flower in Coniferae ; an Historical 
Study.’ Ann. Bot., vol. xiv, 1900, pp. 74, 75. 
