The President'' s Address. By Dukinfield H. Scott. 139 



were ready for fertilisation.' A more detailed knowledge of the 

 condition of the ovules at various stages will be necessary in order 

 to establish this conclusion. 



The leading features in the organisation of the Bennettitean 

 flower may be briefly recapitulated as follows : The centre is 

 occupied by the gynascium, seated on the convex receptacle, and 

 consisting of numerous long-stalked ovules, imbedded among the 

 interseminal scales. Surrounding this central body is the 

 ^pogyii^ws whorl of stamens, fused below to form a tube, and 

 expanding above into the pinnate sporophylls, bearing very 

 numerous compound pollen-sacs or synangia, tilled with pollen. 

 The whole is surrounded by an envelope of spii-ally-arranged 

 bracts springing from the upper part of the peduncle. The general 

 arrangement of parts is manifestly just the same as in a typical 

 angiospermous flower, with a central pistil, hypogynous stamens, 

 and a perianth. The resemblance is further emphasised by the 

 fact, long known, that the iuterseminal scales are confluent at 

 their outer ends, to form a kind of pericarp or ovary-wall. When 

 to these general features we add the practically exalbuminous 

 ■character of the seed, with its highly organised, dicotyledonous 

 embryo, the indications of affinity with the higher Flowering Plants 

 become extremely significant. The comparison was drawn by 

 Dr. Wieland in 1901, immediately on his- discovery of the 

 hermaphrodite flower. The Angiosperm which he specially 

 selected for comparison was the Tulip-tree — Liriodendron. The 

 elongated strobiloid fruit, with many carpels spirally arranged in 

 the receptacle, no doubt suggests similarity, and, on general 

 grounds, we should naturally look for analogies among the less 

 specialised polypetalous Dicotyledons, such as Magnoliaces, in 

 some of which the leaves of the perianth are spirally arranged. 

 Analogies may also be found in our familiar Eanunculacea^-, such 

 as Anemone, or, still better, the Globe-flower (Trollius), with its 

 numerous sepals, or, again, in the Water-lilies (Nymphasacete). In 

 certain respects, indeed, the Bennettitean flower was in advance of 

 these simpler Dicotyledons, as seen in the arrangement of the 

 stamens, which have abandoned the spiral phyllotaxis of the other 

 organs to range themselves in a definite whorl, while at the same 

 time their stalks are fused into a tube, thus becoming " mon- 

 adelphous," as in the Mallows of our own flora. 



The flower, with its great stamens, 10 cm. long in some species, 

 must have been a striking object when it opened (plate IX. 

 figs. 5 and 6). As, of course, we can know nothing of the colora- 

 tion of the perianth and other parts, we cannot tell how brilliant 

 its appearance may have been ; the bright tints of the carpels and 

 ovules in some recent Cycads, such as species of C7jcas and Encephal- 

 artos, suggest the probability that the attractions of colour were not 

 wanting to the more elaborate flowers of the older Cycadophyta; 

 the possibility of a relation to the insect life of the period cannot 



