6 
E antes . — The Morphology of A gat his australis. 
typical mature archegonium, deep-seated, with a canal from the neck to the 
surface of the gametophyte. The shape and size vary considerably, 
dependent upon position and relation to other archegonia. The usual form 
is that most common in the Coniferae, sub-ovoid, somewhat elongated and 
unsymmetrical (PL l, Figs, n, 12, and PL II, Fig. 14). 
The scattered distribution of the archegonia offers various resemblances 
to the archegonial complex of the Taxodineae and the Cupressineae. The 
arrangement of the archegonia is almost exactly that of Sequoia . Small 
groups of closely placed archegonia occur frequently ; between these no 
endosperm cells are found, and at times the separating jacket cells are 
partly lacking also, — a close approach to the perfect complex. An abnormal 
compacting of egg-cells also occurs frequently. From two to four central 
cells develop within a normal jacket — the latter may be distorted a little in 
some cases by the extra cells. These additional egg-cells lie radially above 
each other ; one or two are usually very small, and may resemble a ventral 
canal cell. In all cases eggs, normal except in size, are formed. The 
ventral canal nuclei were seen in some cases, but naturally development 
must occur without the cutting off of a neck-cell initial, except in the 
outermost. Fertilization was found in one case to have occurred in each of 
two cells enclosed in an archegonium, though the proembryo formed in the 
smaller was much distorted. 
There are two points in which the archegonium of Agathis is in strong 
contrast with the common condition : a discontinuance of the jacket near 
the neck-cells, and the peculiar arrangement and permanency of the latter. 
The jacket cells are sharply differentiated from those of the gameto- 
phyte surrounding them. They are irregular in size and shape, and in rare 
cases become two tiers deep. A bi- or multinucleate condition is common, 
particularly in the upper portion, the nuclei being large with often two 
or more nucleoli. The interruption at the neck is clearly visible in PL I, 
Figs. 11, 12, PL II, Fig. 14, and PL IV, Fig. 39. 
The neck-cells form a rounded, somewhat pyramidal mass, the indi- 
viduals radiating outward and downward from the top. In number they 
vary from twelve to twenty, the smaller numbers occurring most frequently. 
PL IV, Fig. 40 shows the group in transverse section. There is but a single 
tier — compare Figs. 11, 12, 14, 39 — though an unsymmetrical arrangement 
places some cells partly above others. Displacement may thus form a falsely 
two- or three-tiered neck. This cap of cells becomes firmly bound together, 
and the walls considerably thickened (Figs. 12, 14, 40, and especially 39). 
In no case was a passage-way found through them to the egg. They do 
not, as in many Gymnosperms, serve to attract or nourish the pollen-tube ; 
on the contrary, they resist its entry strongly, and are never destroyed 
or torn from one another. The pollen-tube is unable to disrupt them and 
must pass to one side to enter the archegonium. The result of such resis- 
