The Penn's Grove record., 1882-06-10
Flowers of the Conifers.

Professor Eiehler, of Berlin, has re-
Gently published his latest views re-
speeting the female or fertile flowers
of the Conifers. He takes it for
granted that morphologists are agreed
that the male flowers are the aggre'
gate of stamens which were formerly
considered an ament or infiOresence,
and now tries to prove that what is
called the female ament is perfectly
conrormed and corresponding in every
respect to the male flower both in
position and structure, and is thus
also a single flower and not an info
resence.
The simplicity of such an arrange
ment," says The American Jsurnal Of
Scieacs, and the uniformity in the
two kinds of flowers thus established
are certainly seductive" The princi-
pal difficulty in the way Of accepting
this view is found in the presence OF
two lesf-like bodies in the female
flower, the csrpellary scale and the
bract. Profe, sor Eichler insists that
the scale, though often apparently
separsted from the bract, is really not
a distinct organ, but a ligular appen-
dage of the upper face of the bract.
He shows that in such appendages the
vascular bundles are always arranged
in . system opposite to that Of the leaf.
from which they originate; IL they
spring from the upper side OF the leaf,
this upper side is turned toward the
upper side Of the leaf, and IL they come
from the dorsal side, the dorsal side
is turned toward the back Of the Leaf
aud In either case the arran0ement II
the vascular elements Is reversed. In
every leaf the xylem (wood-cells) 90
cupies the upper or v-ntral side OF the
vascular bundle, and the phleem
Formerly bsst or soft b~ast-cells) lies
below 1t or toward the dorsal aide of
the leaf. This is so in the cpniferous
leaf as In all others, and In the bract.
while the ligule or carpeliary scale
shows the arrangement reversed, q
we'll established fact. -
This carpellary scale, wherever 1t
exists, principally In Abietine@),
bears on its back one or several ovulee.
In Araucaris 1t is a small process, of
ligular form, from the middle OF the
leaf-bract, with n ovule; In Cum
ninghamia 1t is a narrow transverse
crest with three ovules in Cryptone-
ria 1t Is a jagged crest, at last much
larger than the bract itself; but In
Danara no trace Of o. appendage can
be found. The same is the case with
most Taxodine@, where only a certain
,thickening Of the bract Is noticeable.
But in Abietines there are apparently
two distinct organs; examining them,
however, more closely, they are
always cohering at base, and where
they at maturity separate from the
axis, as in Abies and Cedrus. they fall
ou JokcthtCtt - my ohuui W., WHEY
one Is only An appendAge of the other.
In C~upressine@ no carpel-bearing APP
pendags At all Is observed, and the
ovules are as nearly sxillary as posi-
ble, or, where there are many, they
seem to spring partly from the base oil
the brsct and partly from the axis II.
self; but the ~thickened upper side OF
the scale shows also a reversed arrange
ment OF the vessels, "a II cannot be
otherwise where the leaf is 80 thick
ened on the inner side that at last II
even becomes peltate. The Other
Couifer@ follow the same rule, the
ovules stand in the sxil Of the bract
but IN Tsxinese they are terminal pro
ducts, surrounded by the uppermosi
leaves or bracts.