Hotany.] natural history. 
Were I to adopt the former supposition, or that best 
agreeing with the hypothesis in question, I should cer- 
tainly apply it, in the first place, to Cycas, in which the 
female spadix bears so striking a resemblance to a partially 
altered frond or leaf, producing marginal ovula in one part, 
and in another being divided into segments, in some cases 
nearly resembling those of the ordinary frond. 
But the analogy of the female spadix of Cycas to that of 
Zamia is sufficiently obvious; and from the spadix of Za- 
inia to the fruit-bearing squama of Coniferm, strictly so 
called, namely, of Agathis or Dammara, Cunninghamia, 
Pinus, and even Araucaria, the transition is not difficult. 
This view is applicable, though less manifestly, also to 
Cupressinae ; and might even be extended to Podocarpus 
and Dacrydium. But the structure of these two genera 
admits likewise of another explanation, to which I have 
already adverted. 
If, however, the ovula in Cycadese and Coniferae be 
really produced on the surface of an ovarium, it might, 
perhaps, though not necessarily, be expected that their male 
flowers should differ from those of all other phsenogamous 
plants, and in this difference exhibit some analogy to the 
structure of the female flower. But in Cycadese, at least, 
and especially in Zamia, the resemblance between the male 
and female spadices is so great, that if the female be ana- 
logous to an ovarium, the partial male spadix must be 
considered as a single anthera, producing on its surface 
either naked grains of pollen, or pollen subdivided into 
masses, each furnished with its proper mentbrane. 
Both these views may at present, perhaps, appear equally 
paradoxical; yet the former was entertained by Linnaeus, 
who expresses himself on the subject in the following terms, 
Pulvis floridus in Cycade minime pro Aiitheris agnoscen- 
VoL, IL 2 0 
