THE 
HEW PHYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. 3. Nos. 6 & 7. 
July 27TH, 1904. 
SPORE FORMATION IN TORREYA CALIFORNIA. 
By Agnes Robertson, B.Sc. 
[Quain Student in Botany, University College, London]. 
[With Plates III. and IV.] 
I.—Introduction. 
HE genus Torreya now consists of four species of restricted 
1 distribution, inhabiting respectively Japan, China, Florida, 
and California. In Cretaceous times it was much more widely 
spread, being also recorded from Greenland, France, Bohemia, and 
other districts. * 1 * Such a history suggests that the genus, which has 
been comparatively little studied, is an old one, and might be 
expected to shew primitive characters. The Californian species 
(T. californica, Torrey: syn. Myristica, Hooker), known as the 
Californian Nutmeg, is occasionally cultivated in Great Britain, and 
there is a fine tree in the gardens at Orton Longueville, near Peter¬ 
borough, which produces abundant fruit. The Marquis of Huntly 
has most kindly given every facility for its investigation, and at short 
intervals, especially throughout the year 1902, consignments of the 
male and female reproductive organs have been sent to University 
College by Mr. A. Harding, the head gardener, to whom all concerned 
with the subject are much indebted. 
The peculiar ruminated endosperm of the seed in its second 
year of development has been described by Professor F. W. Oliver 
in this journal and he has drawn attention to its similarity to that of 
certain palaeozoic forms. The vascular anatomy of the seeds, 
which is unique and isolated among recent plants, and also presents 
analogies with fossil types, has been discussed by the same author 
in a paper published in the Annals of Botany in 1903 3 * * * * and based on 
1 Pilger. Taxaceae (Das Pflanzenreich). IV. 5 . Leipzig 1903 . 
3 F. W. Oliver “ On Some Points of Apparent Resemblance in 
certain Fossil and Recent Gymnospermous Seeds.” New 
Phytologist, Vol. I. 1902 , p. 145 . 
a F. W. Oliver 11 The Ovules of the Older Gymnosperms.” 
Annals of Botany, Vol. XVII., 1903 , p. 451 . 
