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ON THE SEXUAL ORGANS OF THE CYCADACEJ. 69 
1. In Cycas the vascular bundles of the carpophyll penetrate both 
the barren leaf-segment and the ovules in the same way (Plate XCI. 
s 1, C. revoluta). 
he place where a leaf-segment should be developed is occupied 
ue an ovule.* 
3. The surface of the ovule is continuous with that of the carpophyll, 
and has the appearance of a lateral expansion of it. The same epi- 
dermis covers both.T 
4. The leaf-segments of the sterile part are not entirely flat, but 
more or less swollen and cylindrical, which is an approach to the form 
of an ovule. This approach it is true is very slight, and the compari- 
son between the hardened points of the segments and the hard sum- 
mits of the ovules may also seem too forced. This comparison, how- 
ever, adds greater value to a monstrous development of the carpo- 
phylls of Cycas Rumphii, which I have previously studied. In many of 
them all the ovules were replaced by long leaf-segments.f A carpo- 
phyll of the same flower, however, exhibited some ovules, but one of 
the sterile segments immediately succeeding the ovules was much more 
swollen than the others, and became hollow in its upper part.$ More- 
over it was evident by making a section that the vascular bundle did 
not remain simply central, but divided a little above the base into 
several branches placed all round the axis, and not in the axis itself. 
All the other carpophylls exhibited deviations more or less distinct in 
the same direction, and I was mistaken in regarding these carpels as 
normal, and characteristic of one particular species. Connecting forms 
have since convinced me that it must be referred to C. Rumphii (as 
that species has been defined by me). 
5. In all the species of Cycas the ovule is more or less flattened, 
being compressed parallel to the plane of the carpophyll, and having 
an upper and under surface. This character agrees with the arrange- 
ment of the vascular bundles, which are collected together on the two 
opposite sides of the external layer of the coat ; when further deve- 
loped, the internal woody layer is also seen to consist of two halves, 
united by lateral sutures, which in C. Rumphii even form two sharp 
* See figure of Cycas yan d xxv. tab. ii.). 
T See Analecta Bot. Ind and figures of the carpophylls of Cycas 
generally, especially of C. eir 
t Linnea, xxv. tab. ii i fig. £3 
§ Loe. cit. fig. 3, the first eed to the left, then regarded by me as normal. 
