TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K, 1009 
which my friend Mr. Seward is far more competent to deal. Both leaves and 
trunks of an unmistakably cycadean character are exceedingly common in many 
mesozoic strata, from the Lias up to the Lower Cretaceous. In some cases the 
structure of the stem is preserved, and then it appears that the anatomy as well 
as the external morphology is, on the whole, cycadean, though simpler, as regards 
the course of the vascular bundles, than that of recent representatives of the 
group. 
3 eae to say, however, it is only in the rarest cases that fructifications of a 
truly cycadean type have been found in association with these leaves and stems, In 
most cases, when the fructification is accurately known, it has turned out to be of a 
type totally different from that of the true Cycadez, and much more highly organ- 
ised. This is the form of fructification characteristic of Bennettites, a most remark- 
able group, the organisation of which was first revealed by the researches of 
Carruthers, afterwards extended by those of Solms-Laubach and Lignier. The 
genus evidently had a great geological range, extending from the Middle Oilite (or 
perhaps even older strata) to the Lower Greensand. Probably, all botanists are 
agreed in attributing cycadean affinities to the Bennettitee, and no doubt they 
are justified in this. Yet the cycadean characters are entirely vegetative and anato- 
mical ; the fructification is as different as possible from that of any existing cycad, 
or, for that matter, of any existing Gymnosperm. At present, only the female 
flower is accurately known, though Count Solms has found some indications of- 
anthers in certain Italian specimens. The fructification of the typical species, B. 
Gibsonianus, which is preserved in marvellous perfection in the classical specimens 
from the Isle of Wight, terminates a short branch inserted between the leaf-bases, 
and consists of a fleshy receptacle bearing a great number of seeds seated ona long 
pedicel with barren scales between them. The whole mass of seeds and inter- 
mediate scales is closely packed into a head, and is enclosed by a kind of pericarp 
formed of coherent scales, and pierced by the micropylar terminations of the erect 
seeds. Outside the pericarp, again, is an envelope of bracts which have precisely 
the structure of scale-leaves in cycads. The internal structure of the seeds is per- 
fectly preserved, and strange to say, they are nearly, if not quite, exalbuminous, 
practically the whole cavity being occupied by a large dicotyledonous embryo. 
This extraordinary fructification is entirely different from that of any other 
known group of plants, recent or fossil, and characterises the Bennettitez, as a 
family perfectly distinct from the Cycadex, though probably, as Count Solms- 
Laubach suggests, having a common origin with them at some remote period. The- 
Bennettitex, while approaching Angiosperms in the complexity of their fruit,. 
retain a filicinean character in their ramenta, which are quite like those of ferns, 
and different from any other form of hair found in recent Cycadexe. Probably the 
bennettitean and cycadean series diverged from each other at a point not far re- 
moved from the filicinean stock common to both. 
I hope that the hasty sketch which I have attempted of some of the indications 
of descent afforded by modern work on fossil plants may have served to illustrate- 
the importance of the questions involved and to bring home to botanists the fact 
that phylogenetic problems can no longer be adequately dealt with without taking 
into account the historical evidence which the rocks aftord us. 
Before leaving this subject I desire to express the great regret which all 
botanists musi feel at the recent loss of one of the few men in England who have 
carried on original work in fossil botany. At the last meeting of the Association 
we had to lament the death, at a ripe old age, of a great leader in this branch of 
science, Professor W. C. Williamson. Only a few weeks ago we heard of the 
premature decease of Thomas Hick, for many years his demonstrator and 
colleague. Mr. Hick profited by his association with his distinguished chief, and 
made many valuable original contributions to paleobotany (not to mention other 
parts of botanical science), among which I may especially recall his work, in 
conjunction with Mr. Cash, on <Astromyelon (now known to be the root of 
Calamites), on the leaves and on the primary structure of the stem in Calamites, on 
the structure of Calamostachys, on the root of Lyginodendron, and on a new fossil 
probably allied to Stigmaria. His loss will leave a gap in the too thin ranks of 
