The President's Address. By Diikhi field H. Scott. 135 



fills the seed, which was thus nearly if not quite exalbuminous — 

 an unprecedented condition in a Gymnosperm. This plant, and a 

 few of its immediate allies, afford the only instances, so far known, 

 of the preservation of the embryo in a fossil seed.* 



In the whole arrangement of the floral organs, the presence of 

 a pericarp, and the character of the seed, the fructification differs 

 entirely from anything known in Gymnosperms, and the inclusion 

 of Benncttitcs in Saporta's Class " Pro-angiosperms," appeared 

 justified on grounds of analogy, if not of affinity. 



So far, however, nothing whatever was known of the staminate 

 organs of these plants, and no one suspected that the fructifications 

 akeady known were other than unisexual. Count Solms-Laubach, 

 in conjunction with Professor Capellini, published in 1892 an 

 elaborate investigation of the specimens of Bennettitese preserved 

 in the Italian museums. One of the fossils they examined is 

 probably the most ancient palseontological specimen known, I 

 mean historically speaking, for it was found placed as a decoration 

 on an Etruscan tomb, having clearly been recognised as an object 

 of value in pre-Eoman days. This specimen {Cycadeoidea ctrusca) 

 was fruiting, and in one of the fructifications Count Solms-Laubach 

 discovered bodies, interpreted as pollen-grains, lying in the spaces 

 between the top of the ovuliferous column and the enveloping 

 bracts. The preservation was too bad for anything to be ascer- 

 tained as to the structure of the organs producing the pollen, 

 though some remains of them were present, but tlie inference 

 was drawn that in this species, and perhaps in other Bennettiteae, 

 the stamens were borne in the same fructification with the ovules. 

 The evidence was, however, too imperfect to appear decisive at 

 the time. The detailed investigation by Professor Lignier of 

 a magnificent specimen (BenneUites Morierei) from the Oxfordian 

 of Normandy,! demonstrated a structure agreeing in essentials 

 with that of the Luccombe species, but brought no further informa- 

 tion as to the male organs. 



The complete elucidation of the subject was reserved for the 

 American palajontologists, who possess a wealtli of material for 

 the investigation of Mesozoic Cycadophyta, far exceeding any- 

 thing that Europe can show. No less than sixty species of silicified 

 Cycadean trunks have now been described from the Mesozoic of 

 America, ranging from the Upper Triassic to the Lower Cretaceous. 

 Among the numerous localities, the most important are various 

 places on the Eim of the Black Hills of Dakota and the Freezeout 

 Hills of Wyoming (LTpper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous) and the 

 Potomac beds (approximately of Wealden Age), Maryland. The 



* Solms-Laubach, " On the Fructification of Benoiettites Oibsonianus." English 

 translation in Ann. of Bot., v. 1891. 



t O. Lignier, " Vegetaux Fossiles de Norniandie " ; " Structure et Affinites du 

 Bennettites Morierei.''' Caen, 1894. 



