2. The Staminate Cone and Male Gametophyte of Podocarpus,

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 42, 1909, Page 88

2. The Staminate Cone and Male Gametophyte of Podocarpus, by L. L. Burlinghame. (“Botanical Gazette,” xlvi, pp. –178, pl. viii, ix. and 9 figs. in text; 1908.) An examination was made of material from New Zealand (Podocarpus totara var Hallii, P. nivalis) and South Africa (P. elongata) fixed in a 5-per-cent. solution of commercial formalin in 70 per cent. alcohol, which gave an unexpectedly good result Though the collections were few, they included a considerable range of developmental stages. The results in the main confirm those of the few previous investigators—Coker (1902), Jeffrey and Chrysler (1906-7), Young (1907)—and show specially that the phenomena described by these authors are also exhibited by the species studied by Burlinghame. These show two prothallial cells which may or may not divide, but as many as eight prothallial cells in two tiers may be derived from the two primary one There is a stalk-cell and a body-cell which frequently differ but little from one another in appearance; but it was not ascertained whether both produced male cells. The number of chromosomes is twelve and twenty-four. At the time the pollen-gram is shed it contains a variable number of cells or free nuclei. Besides figures, showing various stages of development, two reproductions of photographs are given, one showing a remnant of the former extensive taxad forest near Invercargill, taken by Crosby-Smith, and the other the buttressed base of Podocarpus dacrydioides in the ancient forest of the Canterbury Plain near Christchurch, taken by the reviewer. L C.