objection does not apply, but the second acquires such additional weight, as to render those opinions much less probable, it seems to me, than that which I have endeavoured to support.
In supposing the correctness of this opinion to be admitted, a question connected with it, and of some importance, would still remain, namely, whether in Cycadeæ and Coniferæ the ovula are produced on an ovarium of reduced functions and altered appearance, or on a rachis or receptacle. In other words, in employing the language of an hypothesis, which, with some alterations, I have elsewhere attempted to explain and defend, respecting the formation of the sexual organs in Phænogamous plants,[1] whether the ovula in these two families originate in a modified leaf, or proceed directly from the stem.
561] Were I to adopt the former supposition, or that best agreeing with the hypothesis in question, I should certainly apply it, in the first place, to Cycas, in which the female spadix bears so striking a resemblance to a partially altered frond or leaf, producing marginal ovula in one part, and in another being divided into segments, in some cases nearly resembling those of the ordinary frond.
But the analogy of the female spadix of Cycas to that of Zamia is sufficiently obvious; and from the spadix of Zamia to the fruit-bearing squama of Coniferæ, strictly so called, namely, of Agathis or Dammara, Cunninghamia, Pinus, and even Araucaria, the transition is not difficult. This view is applicable, though less manifestly, also to Cupressinæ; and might even be extended to Podocarpus and Dacrydium. But the structure of these two genera admits likewise of another explanation, to which I have already adverted.
If, however, the ovula in Cycadeæ and Coniferæ be really produced on the surface of an ovarium, it might, perhaps, though not necessarily, be expected that their male flowers should differ from those of all other phænogamous plants, and in this difference exhibit some analogy to the
- ↑ Linn. Soc. Transact. vol. xiii., p. 211 (antè, p. 378).
