642 Worsdell . — The Morphology of ihe 
entire plant of Cycads and the brachyblast of Ginkgo ; the 
secondary shoots are the homologues of the Cycadean cone 
and the ovuliferous axis of Ginkgo. In Taxus , Torreya , and 
Phyllocladus the ovule, representing in itself the entire sporo- 
phyll or carpel, has become, owing to the peculiar conditions 
of space-adjustment on the shoot, perfectly terminal in position 
on the secondary floral axis ; in Ginkgo the two ovules, as 
shown so remarkably well by the abnormalities described and 
figured in Fujii’s 1 memoir, and in that of Seward and Gowan 2 , 
are really, as in Taxus , &c., reduced sporophylls, placed later- 
ally on an axis whose terminal bud occasionally is formed ; 
the sterile bracts of Taxus , &c. are entirely absent. 
Now, if we carefully and closely regard the excessively short 
axillary axes, each with its two transversely-placed ovules, in 
Cephalotaxus , we notice how similar each such tiny structure 
is to the much-elongated ovuliferous axis of Ginkgo , a kind of 
miniature copy of the latter, the only difference between the 
two really consisting in the extent of development of the 
various parts constituting each. In fact, we may safely 
regard the axillary structure in Cephalotaxus as in itself 
a { flower,’ i. e. an axis bearing sporophylls, which latter 
have become, as in Ginkgo , Taxus i &c., reduced to ovules pure 
and simple. Hence the female flowers, like those on the male 
side, are arranged in an inflorescence, and pertain to precisely 
the same grade of branching, the only difference between the 
two inflorescences being that in the male structure the bracts 
are arranged spirally, in the female in decussate pairs. From 
all which we may gather that the * primary shoot ’ of Taxus 
and Torreya , as also the short, fleshy ovuliferous axis of 
Phyllocladus , is the homologue of the inflorescence of Cephalo- 
taxus. On this shoot there are : in Taxus a single fertile 
bract subtending a flower, and several sterile leaves ; in 
Torreya a pair of fertile bracts and a single sterile one, thus 
1 Fujii, K., ‘ On the different Views hitherto proposed regarding the Morpho- 
logy of the Flowers of Ginkgo biloba L.’ Bot. Mag. Tokyo, vol. x, p. 7. 
2 Seward and Gowan, ‘ The Maidenhair Tree ( Ginkgo biloba L.).’ Ann. Bot., 
vol. xiv, 1900. 
