198 



PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



height, which has no true bark, but is surrounded by 

 scales originally the bases of leaves ; the latter is 

 generally shorter, and the mass of woody matter 

 whence the leaves rise is less decidedly a trunk. So 



Fig. 76 



RECENT CYCAS. 



CYCADEOIDEA. 



far as we can judge from the remains found fossil 

 (see fig. 76), the climate was probably warmer during 

 the oolitic period than at present, but it certainly 

 differed in many respects, and possibly more resem- 

 bled that of New Zealand than of England. 



The land reptiles, detached fragments of which 

 are all that remain to assist us in re-peopling the 

 ancient shores thus clothed with cycadeous vegeta- 

 tion, were of sufficient magnitude and importance 

 in the scale of creation to require, in all probability, 

 numerous companions on the earth, although few of 

 their remains have yet been laid bare. One of the 

 genera has received the name Megalosaurm * from its 



* Meyag (megas), great ; aavpoz (sauros), a lizard. 



