CYCADEAE, MEDULLOSEAE. 9 r 



close upon one another, are supposed to have borne two seeds on the under 

 side, but this does not appear from the figures, which seem to show the 

 seeds irregularly disposed. The flowers are supposed to have been crowded 

 together to form racemose inflorescences, and in this respect they depart 

 very essentially from our recent forms. Much greater doubt appears to me 

 to rest upon a fossil form which Nathorst has described as Zamiostrobus 

 stenorhachis, and Saporta and Marion l have figured. That it is the fruit of 

 Podozamites is merely an arbitrary assumption. Androstrobus borealis, 

 Nath. 2 , and Zamiostrobus orientalis, Heer 3 , are objects of quite uncertain 

 nature ; the latter is a single scale and is said to be without question a cone- 

 scale of Cycadeae or Abietineae. Lastly, a large number of entire cone- 

 like bodies showing the surface only have been described as forms of 

 Zamiostrobus, and will be found enumerated in Schimper 4 . Some of them 

 probably belong to the group which we are considering, for example Zamio- 

 strobus Saportanus, Schpr from the Miocene beds of Armissan, which is 

 figured in Saporta and Marion 5 . In this case a long thick stalk has been 

 preserved which bears the ovoid cone. Where this is wanting, we remain 

 as a rule in doubt whether we have before us the fructification of a Cycad 

 or of a Conifer, or only a small stem of a Cycad encircled by the leaf-bases. 

 Casts of seeds, which are often assigned by authors to the Cycadeae, are in 

 general incapable of determination. Seeds will not be of any interest till 

 we succeed in finding them in such a state of preservation that we can 

 examine into their inner structure. The remarkable fructification of 

 Bennettites, Carr., can only be discussed in connection with the stems 

 which bear it ; and we must therefore consider them together. For William- 

 sonia, which is placed by English authors with the Oolitic Zamites gigas, 

 the reader is referred to another section of this work. 



Stems of Cycadeae in large numbers have long been known in the 

 Jurassic (Purbeck beds) and Wealden especially in England and France, 

 partly as casts, partly silicified and with the surface more or less perfectly 

 preserved. Similar silicified stems are found not only in England and 

 France but also in Silesia and in North Italy as rolled blocks in alluvium, 

 and may be supposed to have belonged originally to the same formations. 

 Several of these rolled stems are preserved in the Museum of Bologna, 

 having been found with vases and other utensils in the sepulchral chambers 

 of the necropolis of the ancient Felsina ; they had evidently been buried by 

 the Etruscans as objects of superstition with their dead. It has been 

 already observed that the leaves of Cycadeae disappear as we ascend in the 

 series of formations, and the stems also disappear in like manner. I have 

 found in the literature only two stems belonging to this group, judging from 



1 Saporta et Marion (2), p. 112. a Nathorst (8), tt. 12, 13. 3 Heer (5), vol. 4 n, t. 13. 



* Schimper (1). 5 Saporta et Marion (2), p. 116. 



