550 Takeda— Morphology of the 
grown bracts crystals or granules of calcium oxalate are deposited as in the 
case of the leaf. 
The unlignified sclerenchymatous fibres are present in large quantity, 
and they are, in the cone-bracts, usually disposed under the inner epidermis, 
and in the other kind of bract are scattered in the mesophyll. These 
are the sole strengthening cells in the connate portion of the bract, which is 
not traversed by the vascular bundles. The fibres are not always straight, 
but are often curved or wavy. 
The Spicular Cell. The spicular cells occur copiously in different 
parts of the mesophyll They are straight in the thinner portions of 
the bract, but are bent and irregularly branched in the thicker portion. 
Crystals or granules of calcium oxalate are 
found in the outer lignified layer of the 
spicular cell. They are often very minute, 
and may easily be overlooked. 1 
The spicular cell and the sclerenchy- 
matous fibres make their appearance before 
much differentiation of the mesophyll-tissue 
takes place, and as early as the pri- 
mordia of the stamens in the flower invested 
by the bract have just appeared as small 
protuberances. 
The Mucilage Canal. Mucilage canals 
of the same nature as those in the leaf are in 
abundance in the bracts. They are especially 
well developed in the thicker portion of the 
bract, and are very irregularly branched. 2 
The Vascular Bundle. The bundles are 
collateral and normally orientated. The 
xylem consists of loose spiral and annular elements of protoxylem and 
of dense spiral tracheides of metaxylem. No secondary xylem is pre- 
sent, consequently no tracheae are found. All these elements possess 
bordered pits at intervals on their radial and tangential walls. The pits 
are not formed in perfection. They are of oval or circular shape and 
have rather elongated orifice ; a torus has not been observed. The phloem 
consists of narrow sieve-tubes and phloem-parenchyma. The sclerenchyma- 
tous fibres have been observed only in the bract at the node of the 
inflorescence axis, and there are only a few elements present on the phloem 
side (Fig. 5). 
The Water-storing Tracheides. The vascular bundle of the bract is 
accompanied by water-storing tracheides on its whole course. The tracheides 
1 Cf. Sykes, 1. c., p. 185. 2 Sykes, 1. c. 
Text-fig. 2. Vascular course 
with water-storing tracheides in the 
male cone-bract, x 12. Prepared 
from material cleared with eau de 
Javelle. (Only half of the bract is 
shown.) 
