Morphology of the Bracts in Welwitschia mirabilis. 
BY 
H. TAKEDA. 
With Plate XLI and two Figures in the Text. 
HE morphology of the bracts in the inflorescence of Welwitschia 
JL has been studied by not a few botanists, and there seems to be very 
little to add to our previous knowledge in regard to the external configura- 
tion, whereas several interesting points on the internal structure will be 
described in the following pages. 
The material used for my investigation was chiefly from that collected 
by Professor Pearson in Damaraland in January, 1904, and was preserved 
in methylated spirit. There were bracts in different stages of development 
from various parts of inflorescence. There are two kinds of bracts : 
(1) those at the forking of the inflorescence-axis, in the axil of which 
a branch with cones is inserted ; (2) those in the cone itself, and usually 
subtending a flower in each axil. For the present study attention was 
chiefly concentrated on the latter, although the former were also investigated 
for comparison. 
External Morphology. This has already been described and figured 
in many publications, 1 so that it is quite unnecessary to describe it in detail. 
The bracts are broadly ovate. In the female cone the basal two 
or three pairs of bracts are connate, while all others are free, as has already 
been pointed out by the previous workers. In the male cone, on the other 
hand, all the bracts are connate throughout the cone. This character has 
never been correctly described or figured before, although it is an interesting 
and important point. In all the genera of the Gnetales the bracts are 
1 J. D. Hooker : On Welwitschia : a New Genus of Gnetaceae, in Trans. Linn. Soc., London, 
xxiv, 1863. E. Strasburger : Die Coniferen und die Gnetaceen, 1872; Die Angiospermen und die 
Gymnospermen, 1879. Eichler, in Engler u. Prantl : Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien, ii, 1887. 
A. B. Rendle : The Classification of Flowering Plants, i, 1904. H. H. W. Pearson : Some Observa- 
tion on Welwitschia mirabilis , in Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., London, B, [98, 1906 ; Further Observa* 
tions on Welwitschia mirabilis , ibid., 201, 1909. J. M. Coulter and C. J. Chamberlain : Morphology 
of Gymnosperms, 1910. M. G. Sykes : On the Anatomy and Morphology of the Leaves and 
Inflorescences of Welwitschia mirabilis , in Phil. Trans, Roy. Soc., London, B, 201, 1910. Gardeners 
Chronicle, July 23, 1898. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVII. No. CVII. July,*i9i3.] 
Pp 
