402 BENNETTITALES [CH. 



by thin- walled parenchyma. Some of the scales at the periphery 

 of the receptacle where there are no seed-stalks are broader and 

 may have six vascular bundles ; this, Lignier suggested, might 

 be regarded as evidence of the reduction of the interseminal 

 scales from leaves possessing a terminal limb ; but a further 

 examination of scales at the periphery of the flower led him to 

 the conclusion that the distal swelling of the scales is solely due 

 to the hypertrophy of conjunctive tissue and is not the result of 

 the modification of a reduced limb 1 . The morphological value 

 of the interseminal scales and seed-stalks has not been definitely 

 settled, though the probability is that they are homologous organs 



FIG. 527. Cycadeoidea Morierei. Transverse section of interseminal scales and 

 seeds near the apex of the latter; seeds 1 and 2 show the pollen-chamber, a; 

 the fibrous layer, 6, forming wings and extending across the fleshy tissue; 

 c, the radial layer; seeds 3 and 4 are aborted. (After Lignier.) 

 The letters a, b, c, in this figure correspond to cp, cf, and ar in figs. 525, 52H. 



and foliar. Solms-Laubach 2 suggested that both may be axial, 

 the seed-stalks representing axes ending in a flower reduced to a 

 single ovule; or, he adds, the seed-stalks may just as well be 

 carpels, though in that case we should have the unusual pheno- 

 menon of terminal seeds. The interseminal scales may be aborted 

 seed-stalks crushed between the latter; or if the seed-stalks are 

 axes, the scales may be foliar. He is inclined to see in the scales 

 the bracts and prophylls of seed-stalks to which must be added 

 such bracteoles, preceding the seed or flower, as may happen to 

 spring from the seed-stalks. Pearson 3 , on the assumption that 



1 Lignier (04). 2 Solms-Laubach '(91). 3 Pearson (09). 



