The Female Inflorescence and Ovules of Gnetum 
africanum , 1 with Notes on Gnetum scandens. 
BY 
MARY G. THODAY (SYKES), 
Girton College, Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. 
(Report No. 5 of the Percy Sladen Memorial Expedition in South - West 
Africa , 1908-9.) 
With Plates LXXXVI and LXXXVII and sixteen Figures in the Text. 
OR the material on which this investigation is based I am indebted to 
JL Professor H. H. Pearson, of the South African College, Cape Town, who 
collected and preserved it during the recent Percy Sladen Memorial Expe¬ 
dition in South-West Africa. 
The material of G. africanum includes many stages in the development 
of the ovules (most of the younger ovules are, however, unfortunately aborted); 
also large fertilized ovules containing well-developed endosperm, but no em¬ 
bryos. As other authors have given comparatively few details of their investi¬ 
gations of the ovules of various species of Gnetum , it is not possible to say 
how far this species, here for the first time described, differs from those 
already known. In the morphology of the inflorescences, and in the 
general structure of the ovule and its integuments, it agrees with the species 
described by Strasburger 2 and Lotsy. 3 Strasburger’s material appears to 
have included only young stages of the ovule, and he was not able to give 
an account of the mature seed. 
Some material of G. scandens (comprising small portions of the female 
inflorescences with young, unfertilized ovules all nearly at the same stage, 
one mature fertilized seed on its stalk and male inflorescences) has been 
examined for comparison, and Miss Berridge’s recent description of the 
ovule of G. Gnemon appears opportunely. It is hoped that the ovules and 
inflorescences of other species may be investigated later. From Karsten’s 
1 A short preliminary account of the ovules of this species was given at the Sheffield Meeting 
of the British Association, 1910. The Morphology of the Ovule of Gnetum africanum. Report, 
P- 783 . 
2 Strasburger, 1872, 1879. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol, XXV. No. C. October, 1911.] 
3 Lotsy, 1899. 
4 C 
