The Morphology of Agathis australis . 1 
BY 
ARTHUR J. EAMES, 
Sheldon Travelling Fellow of Harvard University. 
With Plates I-IV and 92 Figures in the Text. 
B ECAUSE of fame as a timber-tree, Agathis australis , (Lamb.) Steud., 
the Kauri-Pine, has probably become the best-known species of the 
genus. Endemic in New Zealand, it inhabits the region from the North 
Cape nearly to 30° South latitude, thus being distinctly sub-tropical as 
compared with the remaining species, which inhabit the East Indian region. 
Throughout most of its distribution the Kauri is abundant, forming forests 
of magnificent trees. In youth its habit is strongly spire-like, much re- 
sembling that of many other Conifers ; but in full maturity a form is 
developed which is quite different. The central shaft is lost above. A huge 
columnar trunk, quite free of branch or knot — a condition secured through 
the function of a ramular absciss-layer — bears a crown of stout, broad- 
spreading branches. When still quite young the trees begin to bear 
ovuliferous cones, and when full-grown fruit freely. Opportunity for the 
collection of material for an investigation of the life-history of this araucarian 
genus was afforded the writer while collecting and studying in Australasia 
as a Sheldon Travelling Fellow of Harvard University. 
The structure of the gametophytes and the embryo of the Araucarineae 
has been almost unknown thus far, chiefly because of the inaccessibility of 
the group ; and a knowledge of the morphological and cytological details 
of the development of these structures is greatly to be desired, inasmuch as 
it is now clear that the Araucarians form a group somewhat apart from other 
Conifers. Their phylogenetic position, therefore, is one of unusual interest, 
and, further, is at present very much in discussion. Hence it is hoped that 
such details of structure and development of the sexual generation and of 
the early stages in sporophyte formation as are brought out by this in- 
vestigation may aid in the solution of relationships among the Conifers. 
Collections of the strobili of the Kauri were made at Puru Creek and 
at Puriri, near Thames, N.Z., and in the Waitakere Hills, near Auckland, 
1 Contributions from the Phanerogamic Laboratories of Harvard University, No. 52, 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVII. No. CV. January, 1913.] 
B 
