40 
Sinnott . — The Morphology of the 
reproductive features of the family, and especially of the female gameto 
phyte and formation of the embryo, are therefore very incomplete. 
Observations on the strobilar anatomy of the Podocarpineae date back 
to 1869, when Van Tieghem (19) published a brief general account of the 
structure and vascular supply of the female cone. This was amplified by 
Strasburger (14, 15) in 1872 and 1879, and in more recent years Thomson 
(17), Tison (18), Stiles (11, 12, 13), Miss Gibbs (4), and Miss Robertson (10) 
have investigated the sporophyll in several genera. The structure of the 
mature pollen-grain is known for most of the genera from the work of 
Jeffrey and Chrysler (5), Burlingame (1), Coker (2), and Miss Young (20), 
and the development of the male gametophyte has been studied, but in only 
a comparatively few cases. Our knowledge of the female gametophyte 
and of the development of the embryo is confined to the observations of 
Miss Kildahl (6) and Miss Young (21) on Phyllocladns alpinus , of Coker (2) 
on Podocarpus coriaceus , and of Stiles (13) and Miss Gibbs (4) on several 
other species of Podocarpus. The last two writers have recently published 
long papers which contain considerable information as to the reproductive 
morphology of the family. The results of Mr. Stiles, though accurate and 
well stated as far as they go, are based on first-hand material of only 
Microcachrys , two of the four sub-genera of Podocarpus , and one of the two 
main divisions of Dacrydium . Even in these, few new data are brought 
forward as to the structure of the female gametophyte and the development 
of the embryo. Miss Gibbs’s paper on the female strobilus of Podocarpus , 
though embracing observations on a large number of forms in all the 
sub-genera, is mainly concerned with histological details, and lays little 
emphasis on broad anatomical comparisons between members of the various 
groups. Considerable information is set forth as to the female gametophyte 
and embryo, but this is fragmentary, and is concerned almost entirely with 
the very early stages of the gametophyte and with the structure of the 
mature embryo. The author draws no conclusions whatever as to 
relationships. 
During the year 1910-11 the present writer was fortunate in being 
able to visit Australia and New Zealand as Frederick Sheldon Travelling 
Fellow of Harvard University, and while there collected abundant material 
for a study of the vegetative and reproductive structures in several of the 
genera and a large number of the species of the Podocarpineae. 1 Such 
1 These include Podocarpus Totara , P. Hallii , P. nivalis , P. spinuloszis , P. elatus, P. macro- 
phyllus , P. ferrugineus, P. spicatus , P. vitiensis , and P. dacrydioides ; Dacrydizim Bidwillii, 
D. intermedium , D. Colensoi , and D. cupressinum\ and Phyllocladus glaucus , P. trichomanoides t and 
P. alpinus. 
Anatomical material was preserved in 70 % alcohol or 4 % formalin, but that destined for 
embryological investigation was first killed in chrom-acetic acid (usually about 1 % chromic acid and 
1 % acetic acid in water) or in a mixture of three parts of a saturated solution of corrosive sublimate 
in 50 % alcohol and one part of a 2 % solution of potassium bichromate ; after which it was carefully 
