144 Seward and Gowan .— The Maidenhair 
consists of a slender pedicel bearing two oval or subspherical 
seeds, with a fleshy outer coat, on the inner face of a peltate 
distal expansion. Schimper 1 , Carruthers, and other writers 
regard Beania as a Cycadean flower, and Potonie 2 prefers the 
generic name Zamiostrobus to Beamans more definitely express¬ 
ing the affinity. Suggestions have been made by Schimper 
and Saporta 3 to account for the differences between Beania 
and typical Cycadean flowers, but these need not be discussed. 
It is perhaps the most natural conclusion to draw that 
Beania was borne by one of the plants with pinnate Cycadean 
fronds, of which several species occur in the Lower Oolite 
strata. Our opinion, on the other hand, is that Bea?iia does 
not improbably represent the female flower of a plant with 
leaves of the Ginkgo type and male flowers like that shown 
in Fig. 28, PL IX. This view seems to us to derive support 
from the following considerations. So far as we know, the 
Jurassic Cycadean plants possessed flowers of the Bennettites 
type; this has, I believe, been satisfactorily demonstrated as 
regards Williamsonia gigas 4 , and there is little doubt that 
the well-known fronds originally known by the name of 
Pterophyllum pecten were associated with the female flowers 
known as Williamsonia Leckenbyi , Nath. In short, we have 
evidence that the Cycadean stems from Jurassic and Creta¬ 
ceous horizons bore flowers which differed considerably from 
those of recent Cycads; the evidence in support of this 
statement is derived from a study of English, Italian, French, 
German, and American specimens. We have indeed no 
satisfactory example of a Mesozoic Cycadean flower, con¬ 
structed on the plan of the female cones of recent Cycads, 
which can be reasonably connected with a plant bearing 
Cycadean foliage. 
The abundance of Ginkgo leaves in the Inferior Oolite 
rocks renders it probable that some trace should be found of 
the reproductive organs; specimens of male flowers are not 
very rare, and the evidence that these belong to Ginkgo or 
1 Schimper (’70), p. 206 . 2 Potonie (’98), p. 278 , Fig. 274 . 
3 Saporta (75), p. 59 . 4 Seward (’95), p. 146 , (’97). 
