76 Kansas Academy of Science. 



Superphylum AAA. GYMNOSPERM^l. Gymnosperms. 



Naked-seed Carpellates. 



Exogenous, rarely endogenous, trees with unisexual flowers destitute of 

 a perianth. Ovules (gynosporangia) naked, on the summit of a carpophyl 

 or in the axil of a scaly carpophyl which may later cover the seed. Sperms 

 motile or nonmotile, ciliate or nonciliate. Cotyledons two or more. 



Phylum *III. CYCADOPHYTA. Cycadophytes. 



Cycadaceous Gymnosperins. 



Carpels (carpophyls) very primitive or reduced, often very minute, 

 scarcely more than a mere disk on the end of a pinna or branchlet, or in the 

 axils of scales of large and conspicuous carpophores. Ovules always naked. 

 Pollen (androspores) subglobular, obscurely tetrahedral. Antherozo-ids 

 (sperms) coiled, multiciliate, motile. 



Sporophytes endogenous or exogenous, erect, ligneous, long-lived. 



Gametophytes minute, developed entirely within naked seeds by the 

 large, leafy-stemmed, firmly rooted sporophytes. 



CLASS VI.* CYCADINE^. CYCADS. 

 Endogenous Palm-like Cycadophytes. 



Plants dioecious, the staminate and carpellate flowers on separate 

 plants. Androphores (anther-bearers) very large, persistent, quadrately 

 or rhomboidally obconic. Androphyls (stamens) numerous. Anthers (an- 

 drosporangia, properly androsporangiophores) \r\ threes, radiating from 

 the summit of the short filaments. Sporanges two (bisporangiate), de- 

 hiscing by a longitudinal slit down the middle of the face of each sporange. 

 Pollen angular, somewhat tetrahedral, with one spherical face and three 

 less curved ones. Pollination anemophilous. Carpophores very large, flat, 

 pinnate, destitute of chlorophyl, and densely covered with pale, fawn-col- 

 ored hair; only the lower pinnae fertile. Ovules (gynosporangia) naked, 

 on the ends of the lower shortened pinnae of the carpophore. Seeds con- 

 spicuous, nut-like (with a hard shell), edible. 



Species of this transitional class are very few in all the world; once in 

 the earth's history they were very abundant. None are native in Kansas; 

 probably few have lived here since the Cretaceous period; though once 

 they were very abundant along the lower Cretaceous seashore from Sun 

 City to Englewood. But exotic species of cycads and of maidenhair trees 

 are cultivated in Kansas to a slight extent because of their rare beauty. 



Order XI. CYCADALES. The Cycads. 

 Palm-like endogenous plants, with a short (one meter or less), thick, 

 unbranched, ligneous trunk, bearing many large spirally arranged pinnate 

 leaves. Flowers characterized by the absence of enveloping parts. Seeds 

 borne on the ends of pinnae of a large and conspicuous carpophore. 



Family 26. Cycadace^. Cycad Family. 

 Short, stout stems, bearing at the summit a conspicuous crown of circi- 

 nate pinnate leaves, lasting for several years, each subtended by a small 

 sharp-pointed hyaline scale. The leaves, on dropping, leave noticeable 



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