CONSPECTUS OF THE ORDERS. XVil 
the ovules (usually more than 2) in slightly hollowed-out notches on each side of 
the stalk up to and including the base of the blade [Cycas] or more often unguiculate- 
peltate with only 1 ovule from near each of the-inner angles of the base of the head. 
Ovules (macrosporangia) orthotropous, sessile or subsessile, obliquely erect [Cycas] 
or reversed and parallel to the claw, directed towards the axis of the cone; 
integument 1, stout, perforated at the apex by the micropyle ; nucellus free upwards 
from the integument, produced into a beak and passing into the micropyle, its apical 
tissues breaking down and forming a pollen-chamber in the mucilaginous liquid ‘of 
which fertilization takes place. Mature cones little changed except for the harder 
texture of the more or less spreading scales. Seeds large, globose to oblong, drupe- 
like ; testa of a fleshy, variously coloured outer coat and a hard inner layer, inside 
which there is a membrane containing the vascular system of the ovule and formed 
of the innermost strata of the integument together with portions of the nucellus. 
Endosperm fleshy. Embryo 1, axile, subcylindrical, borne on a filiform, spirally 
coiled up suspensor ; cotyledons 2, rarely 1 (by suppression) or 3-6 ; radicle superior, 
surrounded by a cap-like coleorrhiza, Woody plants with a stunted, tuber-shaped 
stem or a columnar trunk of varying height, usually simple, rarely forked and always 
densely covered upwards with the scars or persistent bases of the cataphylls. Leaves 
mostly of 2 kinds, namely scale-like cataphylls acting as bud-scales and exstipulate 
fronds, both produced in alternating series ; the cataphylls ovate to subulate, mostly 
woolly ; the fronds gathered in dense terminal crowns, pinnatisect or pinnate, rarely 
2-pinnate, often very long, coriaceous, usually disarticulating at the base; rhachis 
generally straight, rarely involute in vernation; pinne straight or involute. 
Strobiles subsessile or borne on ebracteate or bracteate peduncles, solitary or in 
clusters below and often close to the apex of the stem or [Cycas] the female cones 
truly apical, their axis continuing growth after maturation and producing a series 
of cataphylls, followed by one of fronds, a process which may be repeated many times 
at varying intervals during the life of the plant, 
CXXX, CycapacEea. Only order. 
