CLASS GYMNOSPERMAE 
Naked-Seeded Plants. 
The seeds of these plants are not enclosed in a pericarp but are 
usually contained in a cone of some sort. As examples serve the 
cones of pine- or fir-trees. The plants belonging to this group are 
all woody, the majority of them are trees, only few are shrubs. 
CYCADACEAE 
To the family Cycadaceae belong our cultivated species of Cycas, 
one of which, Cycas revoluta, has often been erroneously termed Sago 
palm. This family comprises woody plants which are restricted to 
tropical and subtropical regions. 
It is an extremely interesting group of plants on account of the 
position it occupies in the plant kingdom, intermediate between the 
ferns and the flowering plants. A few words in regard to the re- 
lationship of the cycads to other plants may not be out of place here. 
The Cycads are dioecious — that is, the male and female flowers are 
borne on different trees. The young foliage is rolled up exactly as in 
ferns. The male inflorescence grows in the form of erect cones, con- 
sisting of scales which bear globose pollen sacs underneath ; the fe- 
male inflorescence is in the center of the crowns of the leaves ; and con- 
sists of pinnately notched leaves called carpophylls in whose notches 
the naked ovules are situated ; pollination is effected by the wind. It 
has fruits like those of flowering plants, with starchy endocarp, but 
fertilization is accomplished by means of spermatozoids and arche- 
gonia, corresponding to the male and female elements in animals ; this 
brings them closer to the Cryptogams, which are plants destitute of 
stamens, pistils, and true seeds. 
Cycas revoluta Thunb. 
So-called Sago Palm. 
Cycas revoluta has a stout cylindrical trunk which does not 
branch and does not exceed three feet in height; the leaves are numer- 
ous, forming a crown horizontally around the apex of the stem. The 
leaflets are strongly revolute — that is, their margins are rolled back, 
hence the name "revoluta." As already remarked in the introduction 
under Cycadaceae, the plant is not related to the palms and is erron- 
eously called Sago palm. It is a native of China and is now culti- 
vated in many other countries besides Hawaii, and can often be found 
