CFCADEM. 



439 



sometimes supported on a naked peduncle, but densely covered in other parts by a 

 large number of staminal and carpellary leaves arranged spirally. 



In Cycas the female flower is a rosette of foliage-leaves which have under- 

 gone but slight metamorphosis (Fig. 314), the apex of the stem developing again 

 first of all scale-leaves, and then new whorls of foliage-leaves ; the stem, therefore, 

 grows through the female flower, or furnishes an instance of prolification. The 

 separate carpels are, indeed, much smaller than the ordinary foliage-leaves, but are 

 essentially of the same structure ; the lower pinnae are replaced by ovules, which 

 attain, even before fertilisation, the magnitude of a moderate-sized ripe plum, the 



Fig. 31s— ^amia muricata (after Karsten). A a male flower {natural size) ; B transverse section of one; C one 

 of its stamens with the pollen-sacs x and the peltate expansion s (seen from below) ; D the upper part of a female 

 flower (natural size); E transverse section of one, s the peltate placenta of the ovules sk; F longitudinal section of 

 a ripe seed ; e endosperm, c cotyledons, x the folded suspensor. 



fertilised seed acquiring the dimensions and the appearance of a moderate-sized 

 ripe apple, and hanging quite naked on the carpel. Whether the male flower of 

 Cycas also exhibits prolificalion I do not know, and it seems improbable; the very 

 numerous staminal leaves are much smaller, 7 to 8 cm. long, and undivided ; they 

 expand considerably from a narrow base and terminate in an apiculus. They are 

 furnished on the under side with a number of densely-crowded pollen-sacs; the 

 whole flower is from 30 to 40 cm. long. 



The male and female flowers of the remaining genera of Cycadete resemble 

 fir-cones externally. The comparatively slender floral axis rises as a rachis on a 



