XXXVl] CYCADEOIDBA 409 



of 1 cm. above the apex of the receptacle into the microsporophylls, 

 each of which is 5-5 cm. long and bears two rows of pinnules which 

 in the middle region have a length of 1 cm. ; a microsporophyll 

 is elongate, elhptical, and acuminate. In this species as in some 

 others there is a brush of sterile scales at the apex of the receptacle. 



Cycadeoidea colossalis Ward. 



Wieland^ has recently described some interesting features in 

 the microsporophylls of a bisporangiate flower assigned to this 

 Lower Cretaceous species from the Black Hills illustrating a 

 departure from the usual type. The hairy bracts extend con- 

 siderably above the apex of the flower-proper; in fig. 533, A, 

 a transverse section above the receptacle, they are shown grouped 

 about a circle of V-shaped structures, converging towards a central 

 point, which are the sterile prolongations of the ten rachises of 

 the free portions of the staminate disc. Each rachis is divided 

 by a deep ventral furrow into a pair of wings (fig. 533, B, C), and 

 it is these pairs of wings that form the V-shaped structures in 

 fig. 533, A. The wings form a dome-like group above the flower- 

 apex (fig. 533, D, E). The synangia are borne in two rows on 

 the concrescent disc and on the free sporophylls, which in this 

 type are much simpler than in other species and agree in the 

 absence of pinnules with some forms of Williamsonia (cf. fig. 556). 

 The receptacle is pyriform and bears very short scales and seed- 

 stalks; from its apex several interseminal scales are prolonged 

 as a terminal brush, a feature of interest in connexion with flowers 

 of Williamsonia. Wieland compares the wings of the micro- 

 sporophylls to the two horns on the distal surface of the corre- 

 sponding organs of Ceratozamia and draws a comparison between 

 them and the canopy of some Palaeozoic seeds, but it is 

 doubtful whether homologies can be estabhshed between these 

 elaborate sporophylls and the integuments of Pteridosperm seeds^. 



Cycadeoidea Reichenbachiana (Goeppert). 



Goeppert referred this species to his genus Raumeria^, a generic 



name retained by Carruthers though, as Solms-Laubach* points 



1 Wieland (14), 



^ This subject is more fully dealt with by Wieland in the Volume published 

 since the above was written [Wieland (16)]. 



' Goeppert (53). * Solms-Laubach (91) A. p. 100 



