THE ORIGIN OF ANGIOSPERMS. 51 
FOSSIL EVIDENCE. 
In the foregoing pages we have emphasized certain features exhibited by 
living Angiosperms, which appear to us to be of a more or less primitive 
nature. We may now turn to fossil botany to inquire whether we can there 
gather any evidence of a race of plants, which combines any of these 
peculiarities. | 
There occur in the Mesozoic rocks a large number of fossile, which in 
many respects have much in common with the living Cycads. These 
plant-remains have been often spoken of as Mesozoic Cycads, and the 
idea has to some extent become ingrained that, whatever else they may 
have been, they were essentially Cycads. This conclusion, we believe, is 
incorrect. It partly arises from the fact that these fossils were for many 
years, and are perhaps even now, best known to us by impressions of their 
detached fronds, which are admittedly of the same general type as those of 
modern Cycads. 
Even Wieland * in his quite recent work, in many respects the most 
important which has ever been done in this direction, has labelled his book 
‘American Fossil Cycads,’ and speaks of the extremely interesting members 
of the genus Cycadeoidea as Cycads. This conclusion we hold to be incorrect, 
and one which is liable to give rise to a false impression as to the nature of 
these fossils, many of which we regard as standing nearer to the Angiosperms 
than to any other group. 
For some years past, it has become more and more fully realised, in 
certain directions, that, among this great plexus of Mesozoic fossils, there 
were many which could not be called Cycads in the sense that we apply 
the term to the living plants. It was for this reason that Nathorst f, in 
1902, proposed the name Cycadophyta, as a general and non-committal 
designation for this extensive Mesozoic plexus. 
It has also become clear that this group was complex. It includes some 
plants which were true Gymnosperms, and so nearly allied to the modern 
Cycads, that, in all probability, they may be regarded as the ancestors of 
that race. These true Gymnosperms naturally fall within the group 
Cycadales. As illustrations, we may mention the fact that the type of 
female fructification exhibited by the living genus Сусаз is apparently an 
ancient one. Several examplesi of carpellary leaves like those of Cycas, 
in some cases even with seeds attached, are known in the fossil state from 
rocks of different ages$. Also strobilate fructifications, similar to those 
of other genera of living Cycads, have been described ||. 
* Wieland (1906) Chapter IX. + Nathorst (1902) p. 3. 
і Nathorst (1902) p. 6, pl. 1. fig. 11. $ Solms-Laubach (1891) p. 86. 
|| Seward (1895) p. 109, pl. 9. figs. 1-4; Nathorst (1902) p. 5, pl. 1. figs. 1-4. 
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