90 CYCADEAE, MEDULLOSEAE. 



servation. The carpophylls of Cycas have been already mentioned. A 

 male flower found in the Lower Oolite (Cornbrash) by Etrochey and 

 described by Saporta 1 as Androstrobus Balduini appears only as a 

 surface-impression. In the cast of the cavity Saporta saw the pollen-sacs 

 in large numbers between the scale-tips, which are rhombic on the trans- 

 verse section, in a position answering to the inferior margin of each scale. 

 The flower appears therefore to have been buried after it was fully developed, 

 and judging by the figure we may say without hesitation that it presents 

 the essential characters of our genus Cycas. Another fossil described by 

 Saporta 2 and named Androstrobus Guerangeri, Brongn., from the Ceno- 

 manian deposits of Le Mans, is of much more doubtful character, and does 

 not appear to offer much resemblance to Dioon with which it is compared. 

 The genus Friia also must be noticed in this connection, which Vele- 

 novsky 3 has recently described from the Cretaceous strata of the White 

 Mountain near Prague. Of this genus we have a variety of broken cones 

 bearing scales on their thick central axis. The scales form polygonal 

 surfaces where they close on one another, and narrow gradually downwards 

 into the slender point of attachment ; and round their lateral surfaces they 

 have small depressions which are considered by Velenovsky to be remains 

 of pollen-sacs. There is lastly the obscure form which has been named by 

 Heer 4 Androstrobus sibiricus. 



Of female flowers or fertile cones the first which demands our notice is 

 Beania 5 , a remarkable genus but certainly belonging .to the present group. 

 Beania gracilis, Carr., from the Upper Oolite of Gristhorpe in York- 

 shire, shows two-seeded carpophylls which agree perfectly in form with those 

 of our Zamias. The notable point in this fossil is simply the enormous 

 elongation of the internodes of the floral axis, which removes the fertile 

 leaves to a great distance from one another. Schimper 6 compares with it 

 a fossil also from Gristhorpe, which Lindley and Hutton 7 have figured as 

 Sphaereda paradoxa. The comparison is apt ; the original which I have 

 seen in the Museum at Oxford agrees well with Beania. Some remains of 

 fruit in a very bad state of preservation, found in two separate pieces in the 

 Lower Lias of Arlon in Belgium (angulatus-beds) and possibly not even 

 belonging to one another, have been described by Saporta 8 as Zamiostrobus 

 Ponceleti. The seeds which have been preserved show at all events that 

 the specimens are fruits, and these may possibly belong to our present 

 group. Velenovsky 9 gives a full account of the fruit-remains formerly 

 described by Corda 10 as Microzamia gibba from the Cretaceous formation 

 of Bohemia. The stalked scales, polygonal above and scutiform where they 



1 de Saporta (4), vol. ii, t. 115. * de Saporta (4), vol. ii, t. 78. 3 Velenovsky (1\ p. 8, t. 3. 

 4 Heer (5), vol. 411, t. 4. 5 Carruthers (3). 6 Schimper (1). 7 Lindley and Hutton (1), 



vol. iii, t. 150. * de Saporta (4), vol. ii, t. 117. 8 Velenovsky (1), tt. 3, 4. I0 Reuss (1). 



