604 
STRUCTURE AND LIFE HISTORIES 
structural characters of Cycadeoidea are shown in Figs. 
421-427. 
In Cycadeoidea dacotensis the "flower," which in some 
specimens was 5 inches long, was a strobilus, consisting of 
a thick axis on the lower part of which were numerous 
bracts arranged in spirals. The bracts surrounded a 
FIG. 425. Cycadeoidea Wielandi. Longitudinal section through the 
axis of a female inflorescence, or cone. /, old leaf-base; d, insertion of 
disc; s, erect seed, borne at summit of seed-pedicle inserted on convex 
receptacle; b, hair-covered bract. (After Wieland.) 
campanula of about 20 stamens. Each stamen was, in 
reality, a pinnately compound sporophyll, about 4 inches 
long, rolled in toward the center of the flower, and 
bearing two rows of compound microsporangia (pollen- 
sacs) on each leaflet. They thus closely resembled the 
sporophyll of a fern. 
