﻿BISPORANGIATE AXES. I4 T 



at both ends, lying side by side, with one or both pairs of tips touching. But 

 close inspection reveals that these are bound together by thin membranous stria; of a 

 light yellowish-brown color. They therefore resemble little boats (T. v, figs. 7, 8, 9), 

 the upturned sides of which must naturally appear as two darker lines. After having 

 observed several of these little boat-shaped bodies attached to the sexual organs 

 described above, I became convinced that they must represent elongated and collapsed 

 pollen grains. And in the same section I also noted finally a free, thin-walled, 

 obtusely ovoid,. and still distended body which may likewise represent a better con- 

 served uncollapsed pollen grain. 



" If, as I interpret them, these bodies are actually pollen (and any one may judge 

 this probability for himself by an examination of the original sections which are pre- 

 served at Bologna), they lead up to notable results. Because of the complete inclosing 

 of the flower-bearing spadix by the tightly appressed bracts, as still further held in 

 place by the surrounding leaf bases of the armor, it appears quite impossible that 

 anther fragments could have found their way into the position of the interior cavity. 

 One seems obliged to believe in this case that these anthers must have grown in the 

 very place and position where found. 



' ' We saw that every peduncle (Bliithenstiel) was apically branched into a tuft, these 

 tufts forming a complete outer layer. Can they not have borne apically set anthers ? 

 As to whether the flowers of the spadix were male, hermaphrodite, or unisexual and 

 interspersed is immaterial, it only being necessary to assume a protandrous develop- 

 ment of the whole. And if perchance the fruit of Bennettites Gibsonianus was likewise 

 in its earlier stages beset by similar staminate organs, these must also have been 

 attached to the external areoles. The interstitial organs of the whole tuft- or bundle- 

 like fruit which unite to form its exterior layer would then represent filaments." 



The memoir from which this excerpt was taken was published only in Italian, 

 and no part of it has hitherto appeared in English. I may explain that I have 

 made this translation directly from Count Solms's original German manuscript, 

 which was several years since presented by Senator Capellini to Professor Ward, 

 who kindly loaned it to me. 



The first American contribution on the fructification of the Cycadeoidere was 

 based upon a beautiful pollen-bearing strobilus borne by the superb Black Hawk 

 trunk which was made by Professor Ward the type of his Cycadcoidca ingens. This 

 strobilus projected well above the armor near the summit, as indicated in plate 1. 

 Being such a conspicuous object, and terminating above the summit of the bracts 

 as a small circular eroded area curiously divided into thirteen nearly equal sectors, 

 indicating unknown structure, the axis was oue of the first objects selected for study 

 when the writer began his investigation of the fossil cyads. As removed with most 

 of the surrounding involucre of inclosing bracts, for cutting, the fructification was 

 apparently solidly silicified and somewhat barrel-shaped, the length, including a 

 considerable portion of the peduncle, being jt, mm., and the basal, middle, and 

 apical diameters 35, 45, and 25 mm., respectively. When sawn through longitudi- 

 nally the center was found to be occupied by a pear-shaped cavity lined by a quartz 

 druse, while in all the large space between this central cavity and a denser zone 

 resting against the sharply defined inclosing hairy bracts one could plainly see 

 the closely packed and regularly grouped Marattia-\\k& synangia. The entire 



