Reproductive Structures in the Podocarpineae. 57 
cap (PI. VII, Fig. 31), down into the endosperm. The details of proembryo 
formation are thus somewhat different from those reported by Coker for 
P. coriaceus , where there are fourteen suspensors and fourteen rosette nuclei. 
The cells of the ‘ cone ’ into which the embryo is now pushed are 
packed with starch. Most of the remaining tissue of the embryo-sac becomes 
multinucleate at this time. The endosperm soon reaches its full size, and 
often grows up over the archegonia to some extent. Several of the arche- 
gonia usually remain unfertilized, and their nuclei may either go to pieces 
directly or first become broken up amitotically into many unequal fragments. 
The embryo cell, which is pushed far into the endosperm before it 
shows signs of multiplication, divides first by a longitudinal wall and then 
by transverse ones. Instances of budding or of single suspensors giving 
rise to embryos were only rarely observed. One embryo eventually out- 
strips the others and is the only one to reach maturity. All the cells of 
the endosperm now become filled with starch, and in their midst lies the 
developing dicotyledonous embryo (PI. VIII, Fig. 33). 
The marked resemblance between Eupodocai'pus and the Abietineae 
in the development of the female gametophyte and embryo, and the equally 
strong dissimilarity between this sub-genus and the Araucarineae, deserve 
emphasis, and are of much importance in determining the affinities of the 
Podocarpineae. 
Podocarpus dacrydioides , the only member of the sub-genus Dacrycarpus 
under investigation, resembles Eupodocarpus in the completion of its entire 
reproductive cycle in a single season. The young female cones, in the 
North Island of New Zealand, first become noticeable early in October and 
are pollinated about the middle of the month. Fertilization probably 
occurs at this latitude in late November or early December, but all subse- 
quent stages of this species were obtained in the extreme south of the South 
Island, where the season is undoubtedly much later, and here fertilization 
was found to take place in the latter part of January and the fruit to mature 
in February and March. 
The megaspore mother-cell appears while the ovule is still very small, 
and is surrounded by a zone of spongy tissue which is not so well developed 
as in Eupodocarpus. The mother-cell gives rise to a linear tetrad of which 
usually only one spore germinates, although the frequent occurrence of two 
embryo-sacs in the ovule indicates that this is not always the case. The 
early stages of the gametophyte resemble those of Eupodocarpus, and con- 
sist of an enlarging vacuolate sac lined with nuclei. The subsequent centri- 
petal growth of endosperm could not be traced, for this had already taken 
place in the next later material examined. Most of the young endosperm cells 
have but one nucleus, except in the cone-shaped region below the archegonia, 
where they are multinucleate. A megaspore membrane is present around 
the embryo-sac, but is much less well developed than in Eupodocarpus. 
