956 T ho day and Ber ridge . — The Anatomy and Morphology of 
which extends for a short distance further into the apex (Text-fig. II. 5, 
6, 7, 8). 
Fibrous cells with lignified walls are scattered through the tissues of all 
the bracts and are especially numerous just under the inner epidermis, where 
in the cupules of the female strobilus they form a definite layer, one or two 
cells deep in the outer cupules, two, three or more cells deep in the inner 
cupules (Fig. 7, PL LXXXV). 
The outer epidermis is very thick and strongly cuticularized. The 
outer wall consists of three layers, an inner cellulose, a middle containing 
crystals, and an outer cuticularized layer. The stomata are mainly in the 
outer epidermis, they are very small and deeply sunk, and the inner 
surface of the guard cells is strongly cuticularized (Fig. 8, PI. LXXXV). 
The epidermis and stomata of the vegetative leaves are very similar in 
structure. 
The structure of the bracts in Ephedra is closely comparable with that 
in Welwitsckia , 1 the main differences being due to the unbranched nature 
of the vascular bundles in the former genus. The distribution of the fibrous 
cells, the curious character of the outer epidermis, 2 the structure of the 
stomata, and the transfusion tissue are all points of similarity. 
(b) The Peduncle. 
(i) General. The peduncle or naked axis of the inflorescence closely 
resembles the young vegetative stem. It has a strongly thickened and 
cuticularized epidermis with stomata similar to those of the bracts; the 
cortex is mainly composed of thin- walled assimilating cells, but contains 
also strands of hypodermal sclerenchyma which, however, do not project 
and form marked ridges as in the stem. The phloem of each bundle is 
accompanied by a strand of fibrous cells. In E. altissima the hypodermal 
strands of thickened cells are absent, but the pith is strongly lignified, the 
cells showing simple pits, and well-marked lignified strands accompany the 
vascular bundles ; in E. distachya , on the other hand, the pith is thin-walled 
and the strands bordering on the phloem are reduced to a few fibrous cells, 
but the hypodermal groups are constant and regular, although smaller than 
in the vegetative stem. E.fragilis shows an intermediate condition; the 
hypodermal strands are irregular and scattered, while the pith and bundle 
strands are thick-walled but unlignified. 
In the vegetative stem of E. altissima the lignification of the pith is con- 
fined to the region near the node, while in E. distachya , E. fragilis , and 
E. nebrodensis signs of lignification appear only at the margin of the pith in 
the neighbourhood of the bundles. 
1 Sykes, 1910, pp. 184-6, Figs. 5, 9 a and b , PI. XVII. 
2 It compares still more closely with the epidermis 01 the vegetative leaves in Welwitschia . 
Ibid., Fig. 2, PI. XVII. 
