﻿CHAPTER VII. 



BISPORANGIATE AXES. 



HISTORICAL. 



It has been justly said by Scott that "the discovery of the Bennettitete must 

 rank among the most striking and unexpected revelations of paleontological 

 research." And our knowledge of this remarkable group may be considered to 

 begin with the discovery and description of the ovulate strobilus of the species 

 Bennettites Gibson ianns by Carruthers in 1868, since, so long as trunks only were 

 known, they were very naturally supposed to be much more closely related to the 

 living cycads than then proved to be the fact. But the nature of the correspond- 

 ing male inflorescence remained quite unknown for the next thirty years, the 

 first definite information concerning the staminate organs having been furnished 

 by the writer in his preliminary study of the male flower of Cycadeoidea ingens 

 in 1899. 



In the meantime, the only clue as to the possible situation of microsporophylls 

 was that gained by Capellini and Solms (22) in 1892, in their study of that most 

 ancient of all geological specimens, Cycadeoidea eirusca, from the Etruscan necrop- 

 olis at Marzabotto. As in Bennettites, there are inclosed within the armor of this 

 trunk a number of bract-surrounded fruiting axes, and in one of these which we 

 now know to be an imperfectly preserved bisporangiate strobilus of the type pres- 

 ently to be described, Solms-Laubach found typical pollen grains which he held to 

 have been borne by an "antheriferous tissue." This tissue apparently surmounted 

 a central cone whose structure could not be determined, but which it was suggested 

 might be analogous to the seed-bearing fruits of Bennettites. The investigation of 

 this difficult material was made with such care, and the conclusions reached are so 

 suggestive, that a translation of that portion of Capellini and Solms's study directly 

 bearing on the present subject is given herewith (Capellini and Solms-Laubach on 

 Cycadeoidea eirusca, with original references to plates and figures): 



"As soon as I saw the magnificent trunks of Cycadeoidea eirusca and Maraniana, I 

 conceived the strongest hope of being able to determine in them not only fruits similar 

 to those of Bennettites Gibsotiianus, but also the corresponding male inflorescence of 

 the Bennettites. The eroded specimen of Cycadeoidea intermedia could add nothing, 

 since only the basal scale-bearing internodes remained. As may well be imagined, 

 when, at the first cutting of the trunks in question, the young fructifications so much 

 wished for, and certainly not concealing seeds, were exposed to view, my joy was 

 great. But unfortunately it was very soon dampened by the examination of the thin 

 sections obtained; the spadices were indeed present, but so imperfectly preserved that 

 in no instance could their sex be determined with certainty. What little their study 



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