THE EVIDENCE 1 97 



living Cycads suggest that similar attractions 

 may not have been wanting in the flowers of 

 their predecessors. 



Even the cones of some members of the re- 

 cent family are frequented by insects, which 

 may probably serve as pollen-carriers. It 

 is thus quite likely that the far more elabo- 

 rate floral apparatus of the Mesozoic Cyca- 

 dophytes may have already been adapted to 

 insect-fertilisation. 



However that may have been, the striking 

 discoveries of Dr. Wieland have proved that 

 the Cycadophyta of Secondary times possessed 

 true flowers; in this and other respects they 

 show a marked affinity to the Angiosperms 

 which eventually displaced them. They have 

 thus proved to fully deserve the name of Pro- 

 angiosperms, which Saporta, by a brilliant in- 

 spiration, gave to Williamsonia and Bennettites 

 at a time when their structure was very imper- 

 fectly known. We are still far from having 

 solved the problem of the evolution of Angio- 

 sperms, but we have, I believe, the clue in our 

 hands, and this clue leads us back to the highly 

 organised Mesozoic Cycads as the great stock 

 from which the modern Flowering Plants were 

 an offshoot, destined soon to supplant the parent 

 stem. 



