42 
Sinnott . — The Morphology of the 
female strobilus. Eupodocarpus , comprising the great majority of species, 
possesses a cone reduced to one or two ovules on a short axis which ripens 
into a bright fleshy ‘receptaculum.’ In Stachycarpus the axis is sometimes 
very short, bearing a single ovule, and is sometimes elongated, with several, 
but it is never thickened into a receptaculum. The fleshy character is here 
present in the epimatium, which becomes pulpy and edible, the seed being 
protected from injury by an exceedingly hard integument. Nageia is 
somewhat intermediate between these two sub-genera, for its axis is 
shortened and bears several fleshy bracts. The broad, parallel-veined 
leaves are the best distinguishing feature. In Dacrycarpus the cone is 
reduced to a single ovule, and the subtending bract, instead of being entirely 
free from the ovule as in all the rest of the genus, is fused for almost or 
quite its full length to the dorsal face of the epimatium. The short axis 
ripens into a fleshy receptaculum. Species of all these sub-genera were 
investigated. 
Five members of Eupodocarpus were available for study : P. Totara , 
P. nivalis , P. Halliiy P. spinulosus, and P. elatus. The short cone axis in 
these species bears at its apex a single pair of opposite bracts, and in the 
axil of one or both is an inverted ovule (PL VI, Figs. 7 and 10 ; Diagram 1, A). 
A pair of sterile bracts at right angles to the fertile ones are often present, 
and there are sometimes signs of still a third pair. The slender cone-stalk 
is provided with a ring of vascular bundles and of cortical canals. This 
ring expands as it enters the enlarged receptaculum, and on approaching 
the apex becomes flattened into an ellipse (Diagram 1, b). From each end 
of the ellipse departs a bundle to one of the two fertile bracts, and each of 
these bract bundles is closely followed in turn by two large strands which 
carry away from the sides of the gap all the vascular tissue of the cylinder 
save the small traces to the sterile scales (Fig. 9 ; Diagram 1, c). Each pair 
of large bundles supplies an ovule, and its two component strands, as they 
pass upward through the cortex, gradually approach each other by their 
adaxial ends, xylem outward, and form a broadly V-shaped bundle with 
orientation inverse to that of the bract supply. After the early separation 
of the bract, this large strand enters the base of the ovule, where its 
subsequent behaviour varies somewhat according to the species. 
In P. Totara and P. nivalis it divides again into two strands (Diagram 
1, D and e), which remain close together and pass upward along the dorsal 
side of the epimatium (Fig. 8 ; Diagram 1, f). Upon reaching the chalaza, 
into which each sends a small concentric bundle (Diagram 1, G), they enter 
the apical ‘ knob ’ and soon die out. One or two weak branches sometimes 
depart towards the ventral side of the epimatium. 
Conditions are similar in P. Hallii and P. spinulosus , save that the 
single basal bundle either remains undivided or breaks up into three parallel 
strands. 
