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CYC 



assigned by Miller to a genus of 

 crinoidea. There are many species. 

 Miller thus describes the generic 

 characters. " A crinoidal animal, 

 with a round or pentagonal column 

 formed of numerous joints, having 

 side arms proceeding irregularly 

 from it. On the summit adheres a 

 saucer- shaped pelvis of fine pieces, 

 on which are placed in successive 

 series, five costal plates, five sca- 

 pulaa, and an intersecting plate. 

 From each scapula proceeds one 

 arm, having two hands. The 

 several species of Cyathocrinites 

 occur in the mountain limestone 

 and transition strata; no recent 

 specimen has hitherto been dis- 

 covered. One species, C. rugosus, 

 has been mistaken for a species of 

 Marsupite, but the marsupite pos- 

 sessed no column, whereas the 

 Cyathocrinite has one. 



CYATHOPHY'LLOTJS. (from waOos, and 

 0vA\ov, Gr.) Having cup-shaped 

 leaves. 



CYCA'DEA. (from /cvica?, cycas, Gr.) 

 A genus of plants. The cycader> 

 hold an intermediate place between 

 the palms, ferns, and coniferse. 

 " That curious tribe," says Lindley, 

 that stands on the very limits of 

 Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons, 

 and of flowering and flowerless 

 shrubs.'* Some species are very 

 short, as the zamia ; others attain 

 a height of thirty feet and upwards. 

 This beautiful family of plants in 

 their external habit resemble that 

 of palms, whilst their internal 

 structure approximates to that of 

 conifers. The cycadese are natives 

 of warm climates, mostly tropical, 

 though some are found at the Cape 

 of Good Hope. Leaves of cycadese 

 are of frequent occurrence in the 

 shale of the oolitic formation near 

 Scarborough, and they have been 

 foundin the Stonesfield slate. Cyca- 

 dese have been found in the coal for- 

 mation of Bohemia. The trunk of 

 the cycadese has no true bark, but 



it is surronnded by a dense case, 

 composed of persistent scales, 

 which have formed the bases of 

 fallen leaves ; these, together with 

 other abortive scales, constitute a 

 compact covering that supplies the 

 place of bark. The prevalence of 

 cycadese gives a distinctive charac- 

 ter to the flora of the upper 

 secondary formations. The stems 

 found in the Isle of Portland, and 

 the leaves and fruits in the oolitic 

 formations of Yorkshire, show con- 

 siderable analogy to the existing 

 forms of the tribe at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, in India, and Aus- 

 tralia. 



CY'CADITES. A name applied to some 

 fossil species of cycas. Our fossil 

 cycadites are closely allied by many 

 remarkable characters of structure 

 to existing cycadese. Bucldand. 

 CYCA'DEOIDEJB. The name given by 

 Prof. Buckland to the petrified 

 remains of certain plants allied to 

 the natural family of Cycadeae, and 

 resembling the existing genera 

 Zamia and Cycas, though still 

 distinct from both. These fossil 

 remains were obtained from the 

 Isle of Portland ; they are now 

 converted into silex, their substance 

 varying from a coarse granular 

 chert to imperfect calcedony : 

 everything seems to favour the 

 supposition, that the plants thus 

 petrified, like those of the analogous 

 recent genera, were the inhabitants 

 of a climate much warmer than 

 that of this country at the present 

 day. M. Adolphe Brongniart has 

 assigned the name Mantel] ia to this 

 new genus. 



CY'CAS. (/cv/cae, Gr.) The term Cycas 

 was first applied by Theophrastus 

 to a palm tree ; it is now used to 

 distinguish a natural order of vege- 

 tables, introduced by botanists and 

 phytologists as a connecting link 

 between the ferns and the palms. 

 A genus of plants belonging to the 

 first natural order Palmse, according 



