• Flowers ’ of Cephalotaxus. 649 
were found four members belonging to the axis below the 
vegetative bud ; these were — a lateral ovule and a lateral 
foliar organ (representing the normal ovule of the opposite 
side), a median posterior ovule, and a rudimentary foliar organ 
below the lateral ovule (Fig. 14). With regard to these leaves, 
which sometimes appear below the first normal pair of mem- 
bers, I may say that their frequent occurrence, either as 
developed or rudimentary organs, is sufficient to indicate the 
actual presence of an axis below the ovules, upon which the 
latter are borne as foliar members, such as is found in Taxus 
and Ginkgo. The occurrence (1) of these lowest foliar organs 
on the single axis, (2) of ovules metamorphosed into leaves 1 , 
and (3) of the single proliferated axillary axis, are each and all 
of them sufficient to refute the theory of Eichler and Stras- 
burger, much more that of Van Tieghem, and to establish 
the plausibility of the theory put forward by Celakovsky. 
I may here conveniently submit a comparative table of the 
characters of the female flower of all the members of the 
group, which is compiled according to the views on the sub- 
ject which I hold to be the true ones (p. 650). I have added 
thereto, at the end, the characters of the ovular integuments. 
Summary. 
The contents of the foregoing pages may be thus sum- 
marized : — 
1. Cephalotaxus , both in its male and female flowers, ex- 
hibits close similarities and t relationships to Ginkgo , Taxus , 
Torreya and Phyllocladus. It is only by a careful comparative 
study of both normal and abnormal structures in these five 
genera, and of Cycads, that a true comprehension of the 
morphology of their flowers can be arrived at. 
2. Proliferation of the primary axis of the inflorescence of 
1 The ovule being, as I hold, homologous with a leaflet or segment of a carpel 
or sporophyll, the structure here described as replacing the ovule, and almost 
identical with it in size and shape, will probably represent a sporophyll reduced to 
one of its segments or leaflets rather than an entire foliar structure. 
