Note on the Gametophyies of Dacrydium. 343 
On the structure of the female gametophyte of the remaining genera 
we have no information beyond a few isolated facts concerning the 
megaspore-membrane. 1 This absence of knowledge may serve as 
an excuse for the publication of the following very fragmentary 
observations on the gametophytes of Dacrydium. 
II. Material. 
The material described in this note was kindly sent from New 
Zealand by Mr. Phillips Turner to Professor Seward, to whom I 
am indebted for the opportunity of examining it. The material 
contained ovules of D. taxi folium, in which the gametophyte 
was in a very young stage, and ovules of D. Colensoi which had 
reached a stage just prior to fertilisation. 
III. Male Gametophyte. 
The younger stages of the male gametophyte of several species 
of Dacrydium have been examined by Miss Young. 2 As in all the 
Podocarpeae a complex of prothallial cells is produced, which in this 
genus consists ultimately of three or four cells. The generative cell 
divides anticlinally into “ stalk-cell ” and body-cell. The prothallial 
cells and the stalk-cell come to lie in the general cytoplasm of the 
pollen-grain and ultimately pass out into the pollen-tube with the 
tube-nucleus. The body-cell remains behind in the pollen-grain 
for some time. 
The mature pollen-tubes in D. Colensoi are large structures 
relatively to the size of the nucellus, although actually small in 
comparison with those of some species of Podocarpus. In some 
cases the pollen-tubes branch after penetrating the nucellus. 
In Podocarpus 3 and Phyllocladus 1 the body-cell nucleus produces 
two unequal male nuclei, and in the latter genus Miss Young was 
able to shew that two definite male-cells are formed. In Dacrydium 
Colensoi also the division of the body-cell nucleus results in two 
unequal male nuclei, one of which is non-functional, while the larger 
functional nucleus takes up a central position in the body-cell 
cytoplasm (Fig. 4). Owing to the condition of the material 
examined it was not possible to determine whether definite cells 
were formed or not. 
IV. Female Gametophyte. 
The young female gametophyte in Dacrydium laxifolium is 
found deep down at the base of the long nucellus at about the level 
where nucellus and integument become free from one another 
1 Thomson (1905), Noren (1908), Thomson (1909 2 ). 
* Young (1907). 3 Coker (1902). 4 Young (1910). 
