Reproductive Structures in the Podocarpineae. 75 
evidence which points to the fact that the Abietineae and not the Arau- 
carineae are the most ancient Conifers. 
The close series of forms from Podocarptis to Saxegothea is very sug- 
gestive as offering a key to the evolutionary development of the modern 
Araucarineae. If the epimatium suffered progressive reduction and final 
elimination and the bract were thus strongly dominant, as has happened in 
the line culminating in Pherosphaera , the resulting cone scale, with a some- 
what amplified vascular system as in Saxegothea , would much resemble that 
of a miniature Agathis. Should the adnate sterile bract of such a form as 
Podocarpus dacrydioides become much more strongly developed in proportion 
to the size of the ovule, as in Cunninghamia and Saxegothea , and if the 
apical knob of the epimatium were drawn out into a ligule-like structure, 
a state of affairs would result precisely comparable to that in Araucaria. 
Steps are therefore easy to imagine by which the living Araucarineae have 
arisen from an ancient ‘ double-scaled ’ group, close to the primitive Podo- 
carpineae, and thus ancestral to both families, but which had only recently 
sprung from the ancient Abietineae. 
(b) Relationship to Taxineae. 
The relationship between the Podocarpineae and the Taxineae has also 
been a subject of controversy, but from the prevailing reduction of the female 
cone to a single ovule in both families and the common possession of 
a ‘ second integument ’ and a fleshy fruit, they have usually been placed 
near each other and included together as the Taxineae. 
Cephatotaxus , by the strong development of its ovulate strobilus, the 
typically coniferous structure of its female gametophyte, and the simple 
condition of its microsporophyll, which, instead of bearing numerous 
sporangia, has but two or three, is clearly shown to be more primitive than 
Torreya or Taxus , the other members of the Taxineae. It also displays 
a notable similarity in strobilar anatomy, gametophytic history, and 
embryonic development, to certain species of the Podocarpineae. 
The female cone is a short axis with a number of bracts, in the axil of 
each of which are borne two erect ovules (Diagram 7, c). The vascular 
system precisely resembles that of the Podocarpineae and Abietineae, for 
the cylinder of bundles gives off one strand to each bract and two more, 
from the sides of the gap, and becoming inversely oriented, to the ovuliferous 
structures, one to each ovule (Diagram 7, D). The gross anatomy of the 
cone closely resembles that of Phyllocladus. 
In the structure of the ovule, also, Cephatotaxus shows a strong resem- 
blance to Podocarpus , and especially to its sub-genus St achy carpus. The 
epimatium in both instances is full of canals, ripens into a fleshy coat, and 
is entirely fused with the integument, which becomes stony at maturity. 
Attention was called to the fact that in Podocarpus spicatus two bundles, 
