Reproductive Structures in the Podocarpineae . 77 
probable that this is the primitive state of affairs. To this the biovulate 
condition of Cephalotaxus may conceivably be a reversion. 
Stachyotaxus , as described by Nathorst ( 7 ) from the Rhaetic, is worth 
mentioning here, though it probably shows nothing more than an interesting 
analogy. Its foliage is distinctly taxineous in habit, and the cones, long and 
lax like those of P. spicatus , are composed of small bracts each of which 
bears near the end of its lamina two erect ovules, both apparently invested 
by a basal cup-like ‘ epimatium \ This fossil, apparently a combination of 
Podocarpus , Dacrydium , and Cephalotaxus , might easily be regarded as an 
ancestral form for the Taxineae, but its ancient geological horizon, the 
absence of all information save that from impressions, and our slight 
acquaintance even with these, make quite uncertain any conclusions as to 
its affinities. Stachyotaxus at least demonstrates the antiquity of tendencies 
exhibited by the living Taxineae. 
The resemblance in reproductive structures between Cephalotaxus and 
the Podocarpineae are sufficiently numerous and important to warrant our 
assuming a rather close relationship between them, and since Cephalotaxus 
is the most primitive member of its family, we are justified in considering 
the Taxineae as a whole to have arisen from somewhere among the ancient 
members of the Podocarpineae. 
Further investigations, both anatomical and embryological, upon 
many other species of the Podocarpineae are necessary before there will be 
at hand a body of facts sufficiently comprehensive to enable us to construct 
with certainty a true natural classification for the whole family. Informa- 
tion obtained by the writer from a general study of the anatomy of the 
vegetative organs of the Podocarpineae emphatically confirms the conclu- 
sions based on the present investigation of their reproductive structures and 
furnishes further evidence for the affinity of Podocarpus with the Abietineae 
on the one hand and with the Taxineae on the other. 
We must recognize that in the families under consideration, as in so 
many other groups of plants, very similar structures have been developed 
along quite distinct lines of evolution, and we must guard against accepting 
this similarity as indubitable evidence of identical origin. The whole body 
of facts derived from all possible sources, rather than a few arbitrarily set 
up as unfailing criteria, must be considered if we are to arrive at sound 
phylogenetic conclusions. 
Summary. 
1. The male strobilus of the Podocarpineae is essentially uniform in 
structure throughout the family, and consists, as in the Abietineae, of 
spirally arranged bisporangiate sporophylls. 
2. The female strobilus shows a tendency to become fleshy in whole 
or part at maturity. Reduction in number of sporophylls has occurred 
