cycade;e. 
65 
one of the wonderful revelations of our 
science; the large leaved Zamia gig asJ 
has also been found in the Oolitic rocks of 
Scarborough^ three feet in length. These 
vegetables are undoubtedly witnesses for 
the former prevalence of a hotter ^ tem¬ 
perature where they appear to have flou^ 
rished. 
However remote may have been the 
time when these prototypes of the family of 
Cycadem ceased to exist, the fact of their 
containing so many combinations of peculi¬ 
arities, identical with those of existing 
Cycadese, connects these ancient arrange¬ 
ments in the physiology of fossil botany 
with those which now characterise one of 
the most remarkable families among existing 
plants. In virtue of their peculiar struc¬ 
tures, the living Cycadese form an important 
link which no other tribe of plants supplies, 
connecting the great family of Coniferse 
with the family of Palms and Ferns, and 
thus fill up a blank which would otherwise 
have separated these three great natural 
divisions of dicotyledonous, monocotyle- 
donous, and acotyledonous plants. 
