PAST HISTORIES OF PLANT FAMILIES 103 



Probably owing to their external appearance, Wieland 

 describes the plants as " Cycads " in the title of his big- 

 book on them; but the generic name he uses, Cycade- 

 oidea, seems less known in this country than the equally 

 well-established name of Bennettites, which has long 

 been used to denote the European specimens of this 

 family, and which will be used in the following short 

 account of the group. 



At the present time no family of fossils is exciting 

 more interest. Their completely Cycadean appearance 

 and their unique type of fructification have led many 

 botanists to see in them the forerunners of the Angio- 

 sperms, to look on them as the key to that mystery — 

 the origin of the flowering plants. This position will be 

 discussed and the many facts in its favour noted, but we 

 must not forget that the Bennettitales have only recently 

 been realized fully by botanists, and that a new toy is 

 ever particularly charming, a new cure particularly effi- 

 cacious, and a new theory all-persuasive. 



From their detailed study of the flowering plants 

 botanists have leaned toward different groups as the 

 present representatives of the primitive types. The 

 various claims of the different families to this position 

 cannot be considered here; probably that of the Ranales 

 (the group of families round Ranunculaceae as a central 

 type) is the best supported. Yet these plants are most 

 frequently delicate herbs, which would have stood rela- 

 tively less chance of fossilization than the other families 

 which may be considered primitive. They are pecu- 

 liarly remote from the group of Bennettitese in their 

 vegetative structure, a fact the importance of which 

 seems to have been underrated, for in the same breath 

 we are assured that the Bennettites are a kind of cousin 

 to the ancient Angiosperms, and that the Ranales are 

 among the most primitive living Angiosperms, and there- 

 fore presumably nearest the ancient ones. 



However, let us leave the charms of controversy on 

 one side and look at the actual structure of the group. 



