The Origin of the Perianth in Seed-Plants. 69 
been made use of, while in the female they are apparently still 
useless structures. 
In Fagaceae the perianth is an established fact. In the male 
flower, according to Prantl, the stamens correspond in number, 
and stand before the 4 to 7 basally united leaves of the perianth, or 
are present in an increased (to double) number. In Nothofagus 
oblique both stamens and perianth segments are numerous (30-40). 
In the female there are generally three carpels and a six-leaved 
(3 + 3) superior perianth. Here both in male and female we note 
the elaboration of the perianth into two regularly alternating series. 
The flowers are invariably monoecious, and generally diclinous, in 
Castania and Pasanin the catkins are-^ndrogynous and hermaphrodite 
flowers may occur at the limits, between the male and female 
portions of the inflorescence. A “ rudimentary pistil ” in the form 
of a hairy hump is also present in the male flowers in these two 
genera, and the same may be indicated by thread-like structures 
which are sometimes present in the same position in Quercus and 
Pasania. But even if we are inclined to assume that the flowers 
generally are derived from an hermaphrodite type there seems no 
suggestion of the derivation of the perianth from the andrcecium. 
In the male flower the numbers in the two series, perianth and 
andrcecium, vary in the same direction, an increase in the number 
of perianth leaves is associated with an increase, not with a 
decrease, in the number of the stamens. Bracts and bracteoles are 
present and there is besides, if we regard the cupular structures as 
of foliar origin, a remarkable development of additional bracteoles 
around the female inflorescence or flower. 
In his recently published monograph 1 of the Myricaceae 
M. Chevalier indicates several points of interest in the development 
of the male and female flowers. The inflorescence may be a simple 
catkin, or the catkin may be more or less branched. Androgynous 
catkins occur and hermaphrodite flowers have been recorded. There 
is no perianth, but the function often associated with a perianth 
may be performed by the bracteoles. The bracteoles arise as a pair 
of outgrowths on the floral axis, and recall in their form and 
structure the bracts in the axil of which the flower arises, but are 
more reduced The number of stamens is variable; the bracteoles, 
arise as outgrowths “similar to those which produce the stamens 
and belonging to the same cycle,” they are placed right and left 
of the flower and with the bract constitute a protective arrange- 
1 Memoires <le la Societe Nationale des .Sciences Naturelles, &c., 
de Cherbourg, vol. xxxii. 
