7 i8 
Notes. 
direct and radial, instead of girdle-like and tangential in direction; 
and (2) the large size and arc-shaped character of the leaf-traces as 
they leave the central cylinder, and the splitting up of these large 
leaf-bundles into numerous smaller ones as they pass into the leaf; 
this is essentially the phenomenon met with in the Medulloseae. The 
Bennettiteae, therefore, in the character of their vegetative stem, are 
more primitive than modern Cycads. 
Carruthers, in the same paper, describes and figures the fructification 
of Bennettites Gibsonianus , Carr. The structure is briefly this: the 
short axes, arising in the axils of the vegetative leaves of the stem, 
terminate in what the author terms a £ cellular cushion ’; this latter 
bears all over its upper surface great numbers of * vascular cords/ each 
such ‘ cord ’ terminating at its apex in a seed. These ‘ cords ’ are 
completely enveloped, except for tiny orifices communicating with the 
apices of the seeds, by a ‘ pericarp or a £ mass of irregular cellular 
tissue/ He regards the seeds as being borne on axial organs, as 
distinct from the foliar organs which bear the seeds of modern 
Cycads. The fruit is a compound one. The general conclusion is 
that £ in comparing the structure of this plant with the inflorescence of 
the recent Cycadeae, the points of difference are more obvious than 
those in which they agree/ 
Further researches undertaken by Solms-Laubach 1 resulted in 
showing that the £ pericarp' of Carruthers consists of a number of 
appendages of the axis, probably of foliar nature, arising between the 
seminal £ cords ’ or on these * cords ’ themselves which, protruding 
above the latter, overlap and form a dense protective covering for them. 
The whole fructification is itself enclosed within an involucre of long, 
lanceolate bracts arising below the £ cushion ’ 2 . Solms puts forward 
three views as to the morphology of the appendages : they may be 
either (1) all foliar organs, some being fertile carpels bearing a terminal 
ovule, the remainder sterile carpels; or (2) all the organs may be 
axial members; or, finally, (3) the seed-stalks may be axes, and the 
interstitial organs leaves. Carruthers did not, apparently, regard the 
seminal £ cords ’ as possessing a foliar nature, but considered the whole 
as an axial structure. Solms, while admitting the possibility of the 
seed-stalks being axial organs, is quite prepared to entertain the view 
that the entire shoot is £ a flower with numerous leaves, some of which 
1 Solms-Laubach, Bot. Zeit., 1890. 
2 Solms-Laubach, Einleitung in die Palaeophytologie, 1887, Fig. 5 A, p. 98. 
