aia ea a ch ae an eae ca ae 
DR. J. D. HOOKER ON WELWITSCHIA. 21 
present tumid masses (Plate VII. fig. 1), from which branches are given off in a more 
or less umbellate manner. : 
The internodes are stout, tetere, bright green and even on the surface, somewhat con- 
tracted as if articulated at the base, but not easily separating there. 
The anatomy of the peduncle presents nothing remarkable, further than the mono- 
cotyledonous character of its isolated bundles. The green epidermis is studded with 
stomata similar to those on the leaf and described under that organ. In a longitudinal 
section through the centre of an internode (Plate XIII. fig. 6), a cellular axis is seen, 
with one or more bundles on either side, running parallel to and within the margin, and 
up to the base of the terminal cone. From a transverse section (fig. 8), these are found to 
be very numerous indeed ; and the largest are placed towards the interior. A tangential 
section (fig. 7) shows how these bundles anastomose in the periphery of the nodes, at the 
base of the cone. The parenchyma of the peduncle (Plate XIII. figs. 9 & 10) is a loose 
tissue of vertically elongated hexagonal cells, with pitted walls, enclosing thick isolated 
liber-cells, and very rarely a few spicular cells. 
The vascular bundles (Plate XIII. fig. 10) are of the same tissues as have been described 
in the trunk, viz., liber externally, then cambium, then (internally) spiral and slit-marked 
vessels, 
The inflorescence of Welwitschia closely resembles that of Gnetwm, and especially the 
American species of that genus, both as regards its dichotomous division, the suppres- 
sion of the internodes, and the often arrested development of the cones themselves. The 
anatomy of the peduncle of Guetwm is, however, quite different, presenting a very elegant 
system of symmetrical wood-wedges surrounding a medullary axis. 
Hermaphrodite Cone and Flowers. (Plate V1.) 
I have seen several cymes of cones bearing these, some i” situ on the specimen figured 
at Plate V. fig, 3; and one, which was sent by Dr. Welwitsch, is figured at Plate VI. fig. 1. 
The strobili are }—1 inch long, ovoid or cylindrical, bluntly tetragonous, and $-3 inch in 
diameter. I find no female cones on the same plants with the male, nor any female 
flowers in the hermaphrodite cones; but there are in the cymes of both sexes many im- 
perfect cones in the axils of the permanent bracts. The scales are coriaceous, of the 
same form and general structure as those of the female cones (which will be particularly 
described), but only th to {th of an inch long: they have two remote vascular bundles, 
one on each side of the middle, which branch in a fan-shaped manner. The lower are 
empty and connate in pairs at the base; the upper are rudimentary ; the remainder sub- 
tend solitary flowers. 
In its earliest stage the hermaphrodite flower is a minute papilla, consisting of the 
naked conical nucleus of the ovule, seated on a broad compressed base, which rises on 
each side into shoulders; these shoulders represent the earliest condition of the two 
outer leaflets of the perianth. The outer leaflets grow laterally, and soon exceed in 
length the nucleus, when two swellings, an anterior and a posterior, appear between the 
