144 



THE LIVING CYCADS 



as far as the male structures of the Mesozoic forms 

 approach the formation of a cone. 



The female sporophylls, however, have not only 

 become grouped into a cone, but the cone has departed 



Fig. 8o. — Cycadeoidea, the best known of the "fossil cycads" of 

 the Mesozoic, showing the female cone in the center, on the left a male 

 sporophyll still recurved as in the bud, and on the right a male sporophyll 

 fully expanded; outside of these are the hairy, protective scale leaves of 

 the bud. After Wieland. 



SO far from the condition shown in the Paleozoic Cyca- 

 dofilicales that speculation seems unprofitable. If the 

 earlier half of the Mesozoic were as rich in fossils and 

 had been as thoroughly studied as the later half, it is 



