Reproductive Structures in the Podocarpineae . 
63 
Affinities of the Podocarpineae. 
(a) Relationship to Abietineae and Araucarineae. 
We must now discuss briefly the theories which have been proposed as 
to the affinities of the Podocarpineae, and consider what light is thrown 
on the phylogeny of the family by the present study of its reproductive 
structures. 
The view of Celakovsky and his school that the Taxaceae, including 
the Podocarpineae, are closely related to Ginkgo , and are among the most 
primitive of the living Coniferales, has become entirely discredited since our 
knowledge of the female gametophyte in the Gymnosperms has grown more 
complete. 
A much more reasonable theory, however, and one which apparently 
has a very wide acceptance at the present time, has been put forward by 
Thomson, Tison, Stiles, and others. These writers consider the Podo- 
carpineae to have arisen from the araucarian Conifers through forms closely 
resembling Saxegothea and Microcachrys , and base their conclusions on the 
resemblance between these genera and the Araucarineae in the external 
features of the female cone, the development of the male gametophyte, 
the structure of the ovule, and the vascular anatomy of the ovuliferous 
appendage. They regard Dacrydium , and more especially Podocarpus , as 
advanced and specialized members of the family. 
From this hypothesis the writer entirely dissents. After considering 
certain objections to the arguments on which it is based, he will endeavour 
to construct a line of evidence in support of the view that the genus Podo- 
carpus is the most primitive member of the family ; that it is nearly related 
to the Abietineae ; that from ancient forms close to it the other genera of 
the Podocarpineae, and probably the Taxineae as well, have arisen through 
divergent lines of ascent, and therefore that instead of being derived from 
the typical araucarian Conifers the Podocarpineae may much more readily 
be traced back to the ancestral abietineous stock from which both families, 
Araucarians and Podocarps, along a somewhat parallel line of development, 
have been evolved. 
The fact that the female strobilus of Saxegothea , Microcachrys , and 
Pherosphaera is well developed and composed of a considerable number of 
fertile bracts, in comparison to its reduced condition in most other members 
of the family, has been one of the main arguments brought forward to show 
the very primitive constitution of these three genera. The sub-genus Stachy - 
carpus of Podocarpus , however, includes some species in which there are 
many fertile bracts, and others, closely related, where the female cone 
is reduced to a single ovule. Phyllocladus glaucus has a well-developed 
strobilus with from ten to twenty ovules, but there are only one or two in 
