THE ORIGIN OF THE "FLOWER" 261 



have been segregated from the foliage-leaves, not only in the 

 sense that the reproductive bodies came to be borne on special 

 foliar organs set apart for that purpose, but also in the sense 

 that these latter were relegated to special branches of the plant 

 which both in appearance and in all the characters of their 

 constitution were as distinct as may be from any of the other 

 branches or from the main stem of the plant. 



The above are, in fact, none other than the radical changes 

 in organisation which have brought about the appearance in the 

 world of plants of some of those characters the ensemble of which 

 produce what we call a " flower." In the reproductive branch of 

 the Cycadeoideae I believe we see a picture or representation of 

 the primitive or ancestral " flower." There, in the first place, 

 is the perianth in the shape of the bracts, situated on the 

 peduncle and subtending the whole. The male sporophylls are 

 connate below and cyclically grouped, just as is the case with 

 the stamens of so many true " flowers " ; but they are still of 

 highly complex organisation, and are very far from showing any 

 resemblance to a " stamen." Still more is this the case with the 

 female sporophylls, which are so exceedingly modified as to 

 bear not the. remotest resemblance either to the corresponding 

 organ in the Seed-ferns or to the " carpel " of a " flower." 

 However, they somewhat resemble a " stamen " of the higher 

 plants in general organisation, and must have been derived 

 from a Fern-like sporophyll, just as I believe a stamen has been 

 derived from such. 



These seed-bearing organs of Cycadeoideae are arranged 

 spirally on an elongated receptacle, strongly reminding one of the 

 precisely similar arrangement in such a " flower " as that of the 

 Magnoliaceae. The hermaphrodite constitution and the relative 

 mutual positions of the two kinds of sporophyll are also exactly 

 those obtaining in a typical " flower " of the Angiosperms. 



These Bennettitean "flowers" were probably wind-fertilised; 

 yet in view of the proterandrous character of the structure, it is 

 not an impossible conjecture that there existed a process of 

 fertilisation by means of insects, though we do not know what 

 attractions there may have been which would induce their visits. 

 Yet it is an interesting fact that, as I have heard it stated on 

 authority, the first Lepidopterous insect is believed to occur in 

 the Stonesfield Slate, a formation which represents the period 

 when these Cycadeoideae flourished. 



