Our knowledge of the structure of _Cordaianthus_ is based on the researches of Renault[712], supplemented by those of Prof. Bertrand[713] to whose kindness I owe the photographs reproduced in fig. 481. The inflorescences described by Renault are referred by him to different species, but in the following brief account these are treated from a generic standpoint. The tangential section of _Cordaianthus Williamsoni_ Ren. shown in fig. 481, D, was originally figured by Renault and more recently by Bertrand; it shows the spirally disposed leaf-traces in the lower part of a stout axis, and at the sides some vascular bundles are seen passing up into the bracts. A very small proportion of the bracts subtend ovules; two are seen at _a_ and _b_, and at _c_ is the tangentially cut micropylar canal of a third borne near the apex and covered by the terminal cluster of bracts. The ovule _a_, separated by a narrow space from its short stalk, consists of a thick single integument—not two as stated by Renault—extended at the apex as a micropylar canal: the apical extension is more completely shown in the tangentially cut ovule _b_. The central body is much contracted and the two spaces, _s_, at the base are regarded by Bertrand as cavities in the integument separated from one another by a central strand of conducting tissue which gives off two bundles to the integument, one at each end of the long axis of the seed (fig. 481, A, _v_). The dark patch, _n_ (fig. D), is the upper and broader end of the shrunken nucellus the apex of which extends upwards as a slender beak, and this originally no doubt fitted into the micropyle. Fig. 481, C, shows a female inflorescence in transverse section; the stele consists of a ring of bundles separated by broad medullary rays and enclosing a comparatively large pith: the leaf-traces are seen in the cortex and one is cut through as it bends out into a bract which is not yet free from the axis. Two ovules, seen in section at _a_ and _b_, are represented by the bilaterally symmetrical and compressed integument enclosing small pieces of nucellar tissue. Fig. 481, E, is a transverse section of an inflorescence at a higher level and above the apex of the axis: there are four large ovules and one aborted ovule, _a_. Bertrand describes two vascular bundles in the integument of the ovule _a_, one at each end of the long axis. [Illustration: Fig. 481. A, B, _Cordaianthus Grand’Euryi_, ovule showing apex of nucellus, B, with microspores, _p_; _pc_, pollen-chamber; _b_, beak of nucellus; _v_, vascular bundle. C, transverse section of flower-bud with ovules, _a_, _b_. D, _Cordaianthus Williamsoni_, longitudinal section; _a_–_c_ ovules; _s_, spaces; _n_, nucellus. E, _Cordaianthus Zeilleri_, transverse section showing four large ovules and one aborted ovule (_a_); _v_, vascular bundle. F, transverse section of male flower; _m_, microsporangia. (From photographs supplied by Prof. Bertrand.)]