GYNGECIUM OF GYMNOSPERMS. 



275 



Their likeness to Palms and other Monocotyledons is confined to 

 the port of their unbranched trunks and their pinnate leaves 

 with parallel-veined or simple-veined leaflets ; nor have the}' any 

 further resemblance to Ferns, except that in some the leaflets are 

 circinate in vernation. Although a tropical type (of small present 

 importance, compared with the part which it played in the 

 Devonian and Cretaceous periods) , it has one small representa- 

 tive (Zamia media, the Coontie) at the south-eastern extremity of 



the United States, and a more striking one (Cycas revoluta, well 

 known in cultivation) in the southern parts of Japan. 



514. Following the analog}' of Coniferae, each scale (whether 

 of the pollen-bearing or the ovule- and seed-bearing ament) of 

 Zamia (Fig. 569-575) is here regarded as a flower. Here the 

 phylla, or scales with peltate top and stalk-like base, are exter- 



cient indications of similar composition in the cupressineous cone-scales tc 

 induce the adoption of it by Parlatore, who rejected the idea of gymnospermy ; 

 and, finally, this composition is nearly demonstrated by VanTieghem (1868) 

 upon the anatomical structure, and by Strassburger (1872) on the development. 



FIG. 576-578. Carpophylla of Cycas revoluta, much reduced in size. 576. One 

 hearing ovules below and leaflets or leaf-lobes towards the apex. 577. A similar carpo- 

 pliyll with leaf-lobes reduced to mere teeth, and ovules in place of the lower teeth. 

 578. A similar carpophyll in mature fructification, bearing the large drupaceous naked 

 seeds. The last two after Hichanl. 



