THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 



207 



It was in recognition of their vegetative resemblances that 

 the Pteridosperms were first called (by Potonie) Cycado- 

 filices, now Cycadofilicales. Van Tieghem tersely de- 

 scribed them as "phanerogams without flowers." 



141. A Modern Fern-like Cycad. One of the modern 

 cycads (Stangeria paradoxa) 1 is of much interest in this 



FIG. 91. Stangeria paradoxa Moore. Specimen from the cycad house 

 at the New York Botanical Garden, bearing, at the apex of the stem 

 a carpellate cone. (Photo from New York Botanical Garden.) 



connection. So closely does it resemble a certain fern 

 (Lomaria) that the botanist Kunze, who first described it 

 when it was brought from Natal to the botanic garden at 

 Chelsea, England, supposed it was a fern, and named it 

 Lomaria eriopus. The specimen possessed no fruit, which 

 would have helped to identify it. Its leaves, with circinate 



1 Stangeria paradoxa Moore = Stangeria eriopus (Kunze) Nash. 



