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Reproductive Structures in the Podocarpmeae. 
In the case of the Podocarpineae seems much better than the one Professor 
Thomson proposes, and must clearly be correct if we consider Podocarpus as 
primitive and Saxegothea as specialized. The evidence from Dacrydium 
cupressinum bears out the reduction theory, for in this species there are two 
or three well-developed wings on the young spore, but these become 
withered and almost obliterated in the mature pollen, which thus approaches 
the condition found in Saxegothea. Phyllocladus is obviously a reduced 
and specialized genus, and its pollen wings show a correspondingly great 
reduction. Podocarpus dacrydioides with its three or four wings is inter- 
mediate between typical Podocarpus of two wings and Microcachrys , where 
the irregular development of these structures resembles more the behaviour 
of a vanishing character than of one just making its appearance. It seems 
therefore much more in accord with all the facts to consider the pollen of 
Saxegothea and Microcachrys as reduced rather than primitive in structure, 
and to regard the whole male gametophyte of Podocarpus as what it so 
obviously seems to be, a structure closely related to that of the Abietineae. 
Certain features of the ovule common to Podocarps and Arau- 
carians have been brought forward as indications of relationship between the 
two groups. The fact that cone scales bearing but a single ovule are 
almost entirely confined to these families is perhaps significant, but certain 
species of Juniper us show a similar condition, and it is well known that 
several ovules to each scale were commonly possessed by the ancient 
Araucarineae. 
The stigma-like nucellar outgrowth described by Tison for Saxegothea 
has been compared to the slight protrusion of this portion of the ovule 
in Araucaria , but among other Podocarps anything comparable to it is 
entirely absent, and it seems a generic peculiarity with little significance. 
Dacrydium , Saxegothea , and Microcachrys , in common with the 
Araucarineae, possess a nucellus entirely separate from the integument, and 
this has sometimes been considered a primitive feature and evidence for the 
relationship of the two groups. But the degree of fusion between integu- 
ment and nucellus is a very variable character, as is shown, for example, by 
the sub-genus Stachycarptis, which has one species (P. spicatus) with the 
nucellus free only at the very tip, and another (P. ferrugineus ) where it is 
almost entirely distinct from the integument. Freedom of the nucellus has 
also been attained in such widely separated forms as Cunninghamia , 
Cryptomeria , Sciadopitys, Callitris , and Juniper us > and its occurrence in 
the two families under consideration may therefore be best explained 
as the result of somewhat parallel but quite independent development. 
The anatomy of the cone scale, however, has been most emphasized by 
supporters of the araucarian origin of the Podocarpineae, and since evidence 
derived from this source furnishes some of the strongest arguments for the 
writer’s contentions as well, the subject is worthy of careful consideration. 
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