58 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 



and can even be traced back to the Primary 

 rocks. The race might not have lasted down 

 to our times at all, if it were not that the Maiden- 

 hair-tree was regarded as sacred in China and 

 Japan and grown in the gardens of the Buddhist 

 temples. There is some doubt whether it is 

 known except in cultivation, though probably it 

 may be wild on the mountains of Western China. 



The Maidenhair-tree, in its plum-like seeds 

 and mode of fertilisation, has much in common 

 with the Cycads, the great feature of Mesoeoic 

 vegetation. As it is this class of plants which 

 has come to be of chief interest in considering 

 the question of the evolution of Angiosperms, 

 we must discuss them rather fully, especially 

 as they are not very familiar plants except to 

 botanists. 



The Cycads have not been so much dimin- 

 ished in the course of ages as the family of the 

 Maidenhair-tree, though, in proportion, perhaps, 

 the reduction is not much less. They are repre- 

 sented at present by a small family, the Cyca- 

 daceae, which includes nine genera and about 

 100 species. They are handsome plants, with 

 foliage not unlike that of some Palms, whence 

 their popular name, Sago-palms, for a kind of 

 sago is obtained from some of them. With the 

 true Palms, however, they have nothing whatever 

 to do. Some few are often met with in cultiva- 



