434 Solms-L aubach. — On the Fructification 
longer adheres, it would be found in the structure of the axis 
of the cone. Carruthers has told us that in the species of his 
genus Mantellia (the Cycadoidea of Buckland) the lateral 
axes show the structure of Cycadeae. His words are 1 : ‘ and 
show there a woody cylinder agreeing in structure with the 
principal axis of the plant.’ He had before him no transverse 
slice of the fertile shoot of Bennettites gibsonianus suitable 
for determining this point. It could be seen from those pre- 
pared by myself that the axis, which had lost its shape owing 
to the pressure of the surrounding leaf-bases and become very 
irregular, has a woody cylinder which is thin indeed and 
weak, but in all other respects is like that of the stem and 
follows the irregularities of the transverse section ; it can 
therefore only have reached its ultimate development after 
the distortion was complete. The transverse sections of 
numerous leaf-traces are visible on the outer surface in the 
cortex which, like the pith, consists of thin-walled parenchyma 
with many gum-passages. 
Of the seminiferous spadix which terminates the lateral 
shoot, and is enveloped in its leaves, Carruthers 2 says : c The 
branch terminates in a fleshy subpyriform enlargement 
which bears the seeds. This is composed of, first, a cellular 
cushion ; second, vascular cords supporting the seeds ; and 
third, a mass of irregular cellular tissue enveloping the 
whole.’ It is not plain from this account, or from the special 
description which follows it, whether the author considered 
the ‘ vascular cords ’ to be organs quite distinct from one 
another, or only differentiated tissue-strands traversing a 
homogeneous fundamental parenchyma. And this again 
makes it difficult to give a satisfactory account of the * mass 
of tissue’ which surrounds the whole. To settle this point 
requires in fact careful study of numerous sections in different 
definite directions, such as were not in existence when the above 
passage was written. Renewed examination of new, as well 
as old, preparations had somewhat advanced my knowledge, 
1 Carruthers, loc. cit., p. 697. 
2 Carruthers, loc. cit., p. 697. 
