954 T ho day and Ber ridge . — The Anatomy and Morphology of 
vegetative stem ; it generally bears one strobilus only ; in E. distachya , 
however, it is sometimes branched. In some cases, which are specially 
common in E. fragilis , two or three such peduncles appear in one axil ; 
here the lateral ones are in reality branches of the median peduncle, the 
first internode of the latter having failed to elongate. This suppression 
of the first internode seems to be characteristic of the shrubby Ephedras ; in 
E. fragilis as many as fourteen branches are sometimes found crowded 
together at a single node. In E. altissima the arrangement, though different 
in appearance, is the same in essentials ; the tendency to suppression of inter- 
nodes at the base of the branches is not so marked in the vegetative shoots 
and the peduncles branch freely, the strobili, some of which are abortive, 
drooping in loose clusters from the climbing stems (Fig. 2, PI. LXXXV). 
The frequent dichasial branching of the female inflorescences of this 
species is a feature of marked resemblance to the inflorescences of Welwit- 
schia. It is interesting to find dichasial branching a recurrent feature in the 
Gnetales, as a comparison has already been made between the inflorescences 
of Welwitschia 1 and the dichasially branched inflorescences of Wielandiella , 2 
the flower of which also approaches that of the Gnetales . 3 
In all the above species each female strobilus is made up of three pairs 
of decussate fused bracts which form three cupules, the lowest very small, 
the next larger, and the uppermost forming a large protective cup within 
which the ovules (or ovule) are enclosed (Figs. 2 and 3 , PI. LXXXV). 
In the tribe Alatae, which includes some of the other species examined, 
the bracts of the female strobilus are more numerous and are not fused, but 
become during the ripening of the fruit chaffy and membranous instead of 
succulent 4 (Fig. 3 c, PI. LXXXV, E. Torreyana ; there were here ten pairs of 
bracts). In E. Torreyana there was one case with as many as five ovules in 
the strobilus, and examples with three were fairly frequent. In the strobili 
bearing three ovules the alternating whorls of bracts are sometimes trimerous 
throughout. Usually, however, even in these species, where the cones have 
numerous membranous bracts, there are only two ovules in each cone. 
In the cones of E. distachya and E . fragilis 5 there are also two ovules, 
occurring one in the axil of each of the topmost pair of bracts, the main 
axis terminating in between them. In microtome series of E. distachya the 
true apex of the stem is visible between the ovules as a small projection 
of a few cells. 
In E. altissima 6 there is commonly only a single terminal ovule. 
1 Sykes, 1910. 
2 Nathorst, 1888 ( Williamsonia angustfolia ) and Nathorst, 1902, 1910, 1911. 
3 p * 975 * 
4 See Stapf s monograph on the Ephedras, p. 23 and PI. I-IV. 
5 Var. campylopoda, Strasburger, 1871 ; also E. antisyphilitica , Coulter and Chamberlain, 
1901, E. Helvetica , Jaccard, 1894, and many other species, Stapf, 1889. 
6 As in E. trifurca, Land, 1904 ; E , Alte, E. campylopoda, &c., Stapf. 
