644 Worsdell . — * The Morphology of the 
At the outset I may state that proliferation both c>f the 
main axis of the inflorescence or of the axis of the individual 
flower may take place. According to the period, early or 
late, at which the phenomenon occurs, will the resultant 
structure vary. In the case of early, congenital proliferation 
of the inflorescence, the latter is entirely replaced by an ordi- 
nary but very short lateral vegetative shoot bearing spirally- 
arranged leaves, in which no trace of bracts or ovules are 
visible (Fig. 3), and which itself may produce inflorescences 
in its turn at the base. It may frequently attain an inch in 
length. Such a short vegetative shoot is mitch more nearly 
comparable to a brachyblast of Ginkgo , and serves to show 
that the homology suggested above as existing between the 
latter and the female inflorescence of Cephalotaxus may not 
be at all far-fetched. Indeed, the frequency of these pro- 
liferated inflorescences (I have heard of their occurrence 
elsewhere than in Windsor Park) strengthens the likelihood 
of their being the homologues of the brachyblasts of Ginkgo. 
Figs. 4-8 illustrate a few of these shoots alongside normal 
female inflorescences, in one of which latter is a leaf below the 
head of bracts inserted alonej as if representing the commence- 
ment of a spiral line. 
If the proliferation of the primary axis has not occurred 
quite so early in the development of the shoot — not, in fact, 
until after the formation of the first pair of bracts — we obtain 
the case shown in Fig. 10, where, after the pair of bracts, 
which may be either fertile or sterile (i. e. contain no ovules in 
their axils), a vegetative axis bearing spirally-arranged leaves 
is laid down. 
Again, proliferation may set in at a much later date, viz. 
after the formation of two or three pairs of bracts, of which 
the first pair may be alone fertile, and the third pair only dis- 
tinguished from the spirally-arranged leaves of the apical bud 
by the fact of their apices not being adpressed to the bud, but 
projecting slightly outward (Fig. 14). The case shown in 
Figs. 11 and 12 is that of an inflorescence which has made 
but a very feeble advance towards proliferation ; the first and 
