1130 Thoday .•— The Female Inflorescence and Ovules of 
IX. Other Resemblances between Gnetum and the 
Bennettitales. 
The method of vascular supply of the peduncle of the whole cone of 
Cycadeoidea Wielandii , and of the single Gnetum flower is very similar, as 
maybe seen when Text-fig. 3, p. 1107, is compared with Wieland’s Fig. 59, 
p. 113. The two figures are both drawn from radial sections, and two sets 
of bundles are seen running out into the axillary stalk. Wieland says that 
the lower bundles, which are seen from transverse sections to be orientated 
similarly to the main bundles, are c either directly connected with, or envelop 
the supply of the leaf-base 5 ; 1 he calls them ‘the axillary portion of the 
leaf bundles ’. The upper series is orientated inversely to the other two 
and is chiefly derived from the main bundles. This description is strikingly 
like that of Gne turn gwtn on pp. 1106 ff. of this paper. Transverse sections 
show that the bundle supply of each peduncle 2 is arranged in a ring, the 
outer members of the ring orientated like the main bundles, the inner 
inversely orientated. In Gnetum the outer series passes out more rapidly, 
and the whole of the ring supplying any given ovule cannot be cut in trans¬ 
verse sections of the stem, but only in tangential. 
b 
X. Summary. 
1. The vascular system of the female inflorescences and flowers of 
G. africanum and G. scandens , and of the male inflorescence of G. scandens 
is described. The most interesting points are the presence of three con- 
centric rings of bundles in the nodes, the middle one of which is orientated 
inversely to the other two. The method of vascular supply to the single 
female flower in G. africanum bears a remarkably close resemblance to the 
method of supply to the axillary inflorescence in Bennettites . 
2. Concentric bundles occur fairly frequently in the two outer rings 
of bundles and are sometimes continuous throughout the internode. 
3. Each ovule receives a ring of bundles ; these traverse the stalk 
and branch at the base of the ovule to form three series; the two outer 
series traverse the outer and middle coverings to their tips, the inner series 
run up to the level of freedom of the inner covering and sometimes for 
a little distance into its base. In the young ovule strands of meristem 
run a considerable way up into the free portion of the inner integument. 
4. Throughout the short ovular stalk of G. africanum and in the 
upper part of the long stalk of G. scandens, the centre of the pith is 
lignified. At the base of the ovule the lignification spreads outwards, 
while parenchyma appears in the centre of the pith. The layer of 
lignified tissue then passes outwards between the bundles into the region 
separating the bases of the two integuments, and is higher up continuous 
1 Wieland, p. 113. 2 Ibid., pp. 69-71. 
