86 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 



first to be discovered in a fertile condition, and 

 from this discovery our 

 knowledge of the Bennet- 

 titese maybe said to date, 

 for though related plants 

 had been discovered 

 much earlier, their struc- 

 ture was not understood. 

 The fructifications are 

 borne in exactly the 

 same way as those of 

 the American species, 

 and their structure is 

 no doubt essentially the 

 same, only they happen 

 to have been fossilised at 

 a later stage of develop- 

 ^-^^3^ ment> wnen t he flower 

 had become a fruit. 



Kg. W.-Bennettites Gibso- The bracts sti11 enclose 

 nianus. (A) Diagram of fruit the fruit, but the stamens 



stalked seeds, each contain- seceum has enlarged so as 

 frSSSSSK^SSto fiU up all the space 



ends forming the pericarp, within the bracts (fig. 



MTSkSEW 10 > A >- The . rece ? tade 



mains of nucellus; (ct) the (more rounded in this spe- 

 cotyledons ot fteebryo, m ; n ^ American 



From Scott, Studies. one already described) 



