THE EVIDENCE 



81 



fructifications, which in these plants were borne 

 laterally and in great numbers, instead of growing 



Fig. 8. Bennettites marylandicus. The earliest described 

 American fossil Cycad, showing the leaf-bases and fructifica- 

 tions. After Wieland. 



out, a few at a time, from the top of the stem, as in 

 the recent family (fig. 8). 



The anatomy of the stem need not detain us; 

 it was essentially the same as in the simpler living 

 Cycads, that is to say, there was a ring of wood 



