Reproductive Strzictures in the Podocarpinecte. 73 
plete fusion of ovule and epimatium to the sterile bract indicate a definite 
step in the direction of Microccichrys and Saxegothea. This species is also 
set off from the rest of the genus by its subulate leaves, numerous mucilage 
cells in the endosperm, and poor development of spongy tissue and megaspore 
membrane. 
Microcachrys is close to P. dacrydioides in the possession of subulate 
leaves, three-winged pollen, and a single bundle in the bract (Diagram 8, c 
and d), but it has advanced, like Dacrydium , in the freedom of epimatium 
from integument. The upper vascular system has likewise grown very 
weak. 
Pherosphaera is the last step in reduction, and here all traces of the 
epimatium have been lost, and the ovule has become axillary and erect, 
both of which features seem undoubtedly modern and not primitive. 
In Phyltocladus the wings of the pollen-grain are disappearing, and the 
ovule has also attained a perfectly erect position and is surrounded sym- 
metrically at its base by an epimatium obviously homologous with that in 
Dacrydium proper. The integument of the ovule in these two genera is 
divided in precisely the same way into a stout outer layer and a more soft 
inner one, and is free entirely from the nucellus. The female gametophyte, 
especially in the reduced number of archegonia and the structure of the 
neck, is very similar in both genera. All the evidence seems to indicate 
that Phyltocladus , though radically modified in vegetative structures, has 
undergone the same reproductive development as the other recent members 
of the family, especially Dacrydium , and that it is closely related to them. 
Podocarpus dacrydioides , Dacrydium , Microcachrys , Pherosphaera , and 
Phyltocladus are with a very few exceptions Australasian, and seem to 
represent two or three main lines of evolution from the genus Podocarpus. 
They show a tendency towards extreme leaf-reduction, a modification or 
loss of the pollen wings, an erect position of the ovule, freedom of the 
nucellus, freedom and reduction of the epimatium, and fusion of the epima- 
tium with the bract. 
Very close to these forms stands the Chilean Saxegothea, which differs 
from them in having much larger leaves and a more complex vascular 
system in the bract, where the single strand has divided into three or five 
(Diagram 8, E).. This dominance of the bract is precisely comparable to 
a similar state of affairs in Cunninghamia , Athrotaxis (Diagram 8, f), and 
the Araucarineae. A small free epimatium and the absence of winged 
pollen also show the advanced position of the genus. 
The classification of the Podocarpineae here proposed (Diagram 9) is 
radically different from that recently put forward by Stiles, which is based 
on the hypothesis we have already discussed, that Saxegothea and Phero- 
sphaera are the most primitive members of the family. The complete 
separation by this author of § D aery carpus, Microcachrys, and Pherosphaera 
