2 Eames. — The Morphology of Agathis australis. 
N.Z., in late October and in November, 1910, and again, at the last station, 
in February, 1911. 
The individuals from which material was taken were strictly monoecious, 
bearing freely cones of both sexes (PL l, Fig. 1), whereas the genus as a whole 
is dioecious. The male cones are cylindrical, three to six centimetres long, 
and about one centimetre in diameter. They are borne solitary, erect, and 
slightly peduncled in the axils of normal leaves. The microsporophylls, 
spirally arranged, bear eight to twelve sporangia attached to the lower side 
of the peltate tip, projecting adaxially. The pollen is shed from late 
September to the middle or last of October. The earliest date available 
for collection was October 28, and the pollen was then found to have been 
nearly all shed. The only material obtained was from an individual 
retarded in development. In this only ungerminated microspores were 
found. Hence a study of the early history of the male gametophyte could 
not be made. However, Jeffrey and Chrysler ( 4 ) have described its early 
development in this species, and Thomson (14 and 15 ) has published some 
notes on the germination of the pollen and the behaviour of the nuclei at 
this time. Two prothallial cells are cut off as in many Gymnosperms. 
These cells not only persist, but divide further to form a complex of 
several cells within the pollen-grain. Evidently a considerable proliferation 
of this tissue occurs, followed by the freeing of its many nuclei, since 
Thomson reports as many as forty nuclei within the young pollen-tube. 
Similarly, a large number of supernumerary nuclei form in the pollen of 
Araucaria , as Lopriore (8) has shown for A. Bidwillii. The method of 
pollination in these genera is unique among Gymnosperms. Germination 
occurs upon the ligule in Araucaria , and on the surface of the cone scale 
nearer the ovule in Agathis. Thence the pollen-tubes pass towards the 
micropyle. Thomson, who made this discovery, has designated such 
a method of fertilization as ‘ protosiphonogamic \ In the placing of the 
pollen the Araucarineae thus differ from all other Conifers where the grains 
are conveyed to the micropyle ; and their proliferation of male prothallial 
tissue is paralleled only in the Podocarpineae. 
In the study of his material the writer has not seen pollen-grains 
germinating upon the scale. They are found chiefly deep in the axil of the 
scale. Often the grains have become embedded in the cortical tissue of 
the cone axis, or of the nucellus by the growth of the latter against the 
former. In this position the tubes are sent out as described below. 
The female cones terminate short stout branches. In October three 
stages are found : very young cones, about 1 cm. in diameter, just 
breaking from bud-scales ; small, obovoid cones, about % cm. in diameter, 
with loose scales, — the flowering stage ; and large, almost spherical cones, 
from 4 to 6 cm. in diameter. Fertilization occurs in the last mentioned 
from the end of October to the middle of November, and the seeds are 
