970 T ho day and Ber ridge . — The Anatomy and Morphology of 
(g) Anatomy of Male Strobilus. 
The anatomy of the male strobilus is similar in all essentials to that 
of the female. The pair of lower sterile bracts have usually no buds in 
their axils, and each is supplied with two bundles in the same way as the 
pairs of sterile bracts of the female strobilus. At the other nodes, at each 
of which arise two bracts and two male flowers, the course of the vascular 
bundles is closely comparable with that at the origin of a vegetative bud. 1 
The male flower receives, similarly, three bundles : the median trace, derived 
itself from the fusion of two bundles and originating early from the two 
bundles which supply the subtending bract, and two lateral traces which 
originate from the bract bundles as they pass out. Unlike the lateral traces 
of the vegetative bud, these lateral traces receive only a very small contri- 
bution from the bundles of the main stem, and are derived mainly from the 
foliar bundles (Text-fig. XVIII. 1-4). 
(//) Anatomy of Male Flower . 2 
I. General. The male flower consists of a short axis which generally 
arises free in the axil of the bract, but in E. fragilis is fused for a short 
distance with the bract. On this short axis are inserted 
the two membraneous appendages. Above their inser- 
tion the antherophore bearing the synangia extends 
upwards, its long axis being a continuation of the long 
axis of the flower. In E. fragilis it is folded back on 
itself in the bud (Text-fig. Xiv) showing circinate verna- 
tion, but this curious configuration has not been found 
in any of the other species, in the buds of which the 
axis is very short and straight (Fig. 5 c, PI. LXXXV). 
The antherophore varies considerably in the different 
species. It is generally cylindrical in the earliest stages, 
and it may remain so when mature, or may broaden 
out into a fairly wide lamina. In E. Torreyana (Text- 
fig. XVII) and E. aspera 3 this lamina is well developed, and the synangia 
are borne on long stalks. In E. nebrodensis also the sporangiophore 
is flattened, as it is in several of the species figured by Stapf. In 
E. distachya and E. fragilis it is much more cylindrical, and in E. altissima, 
where it is probably most reduced, it shows little if any sign of broadening 
out into a lamina. 
In some species, e. g. E. distachya , E. nebrodensis , the antherophore is 
clearly bifid. Each half bears four synangia, situated on the side of the 
1 p. 959 and Text-fig. iv. 2 See also Strasburger, 1872, p. 132. 
3 Both of these species have female strobili with numerous membranous bracts, and are 
presumably (pp. 954 and 976) among the more primitive of the species of Ephedra. 
Text-fig. xiv. 
Sporangiophore of 
E. fragilis in bud, 
showing the manner 
in which it is folded 
over. p = base of 
perianth, x 23. 
