120 Sahni.—On Certain Archaic Features in the Seed of Taxus 
a slight but easily noticeable thickening beyond which, instead of proceed- 
ing in the continuation of the canal, it bends sharply outwards so as to 
form a rather striking knee-like bend. The presence of these thickened 
angles in the bundles is a point on which I wish to lay stress, in spite of its 
apparent insignificance, for I have reason to believe that they mark the 
points from which once branched off an ‘ internal ’ (nucellar) system of ! 
strands, now extinct in Taxus} 
That I am able here to state my reason for this view, I owe to 
Prof. R. H. Compton, M.A., who very generously allowed me to examine 
the ovules of an extremely interesting new genus of Conifers recently 
1 It is indeed not impossible that if a sufficiently advanced stage of the seed could be sectioned 
— a process beset with practical difficulties owing to the bony sclerotesta — actual vestiges of an 
‘internal’ vascular system might be discovered. 
