THE EVIDENCE 85 



Fern, than the stamens of any other plant. Each 

 pollen-sac was attached to its leaflet by a short 

 stalk. 



The centre of the flower, just as in an Angio- 

 sperm, is occupied by the female apparatus or 

 gynceceum (it is better to avoid the use of the 

 word pistil for reasons which will appear presently). 

 This consists of a conical axis, the receptacle, on 

 the sides of which a great number of stalked 

 ovules are borne, intermingled with barren scales. 

 The structure of the gynseceum is better made out 

 in the mature specimens, where the flower has 

 become a fruit. The point to note here is that 

 the arrangement of the organs in the fructifica- 

 tion of the Mesozoic Bennettites is just the same 

 as in a typical Angiospermous flower on the 

 outside the bracts, which might quite well be 

 called a perianth, then a ring of stamens, and 

 finally the female apparatus in the middle. 

 This arrangement seems to have been general in 

 Bennettites and to have extended to some of its 

 allies, though in other related plants the flowers 

 are said to have been of separate sexes. 



In the more mature fructifications the stamens 

 have disappeared, leaving only a rim round the 

 base of the receptacle, to show where they were 

 inserted. One of the best examples of the 

 fruiting stage is found in Bennettites Gibsonianus, 

 the Luccombe Chine fossil; this plant was the 



