190 
MORPHOLOGY 
Conclusions. The characters presented by this group are a com- 
bination of the characters of Cycadofilicales, of Cycadales, and of char- 
acters peculiar to itself. In lateral branches, ramentum, direct leaf 
traces, and synangia, it resembles Cycadofilicales and Filicales. In 
general habit and 
anatomy it re- 
sembles Cycadales. 
In its bisporangiate 
strobilus, its united 
and pinnate and 
synangium-bearing 
stamens, its mix- 
ture of sterile and 
fertile megaspo- 
rophylls bearing 
terminal ovules, 
and its peculiar 
embryo, it is unlike 
any other gymno- 
sperm group. 
(3) CYCADALES 
General character. 
The cycads are 
tropical plants, in- 
cluding almost one 
hundred species, 
constituting nine 
genera. They are 
distributed almost 
equally between the 
oriental and oc- 
cidental tropics, 
Cycas being the 
conspicuous orien- 
tal genus, and Zamia the conspicuous occidental one. The cycads are 
the modern living representatives of the line that began with the 
Cycadofilicales of the Paleozoic, and was continued by the Bennet- 
titales of the Mesozoic. 
FIG. 433. Cycas media (middle and right) and C. Norman- 
byana (left), from oriental tropics. After F. VON MULLER. 
