150 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. Cuap. VI, 
Fossin CycADACE. 
The plants of this subdivision of the vegetable kingdom, 
from their singular structure and mode of growth, their 
simple cylindrical stems, and coronets of pinnated foliage, 
resembling that of certain palms, their usually gyrate ver- 
nation like that of the ferns, and their anomalous inflo- 
rescence and fructification, are objects of great interest to 
the scientific botanist ; while the abundance of their fossil 
remains in the secondary formations renders them of the 
highest importance to the geologist. 
As many kinds of Zamia* and Cycas are cultivated in our 
hot-houses, the general appearance of the plants of this 
order must be familiar to 
the reader: the annexed 
figure of a beautiful living 
Cycas in the Royal Gar- 
dens at Kew, will serve to 
illustrate the general as- 
pect of these exotics. 
The Zamize are short 
plants, with stout cylin- 
drical stems, beset with 
thick scales, which are the 
bases of the petioles that 
Peek have been shed: towards 
Fobiaen quo vers bar or oz S7=" the summit the! aaa” 
garnished with a crown of 
elegant leaves; the fruit 
resembles the cones of pines. The leaves are pinnated, and 
very tough ; their venation is either parallel as in endogens, 
or dichotomous as in ferns, but never reticulated as in exo- 
In Kew Conservatory. 
* The Linnean genus Zamia is now separated into five or six 
genera, as Encephalartos, Macrozamia, Dion, &c. 
