A thorough examination of cycadean seeds has recently been made by Miss Stopes, more particularly with a view to a comparison of their vascular supply with that in Palaeozoic gymnospermous seeds (Flora, 1904).
It is of interest to note that the leaves of Gnetum, while typically Dicotyledonous in appearance, possess a Gymnospermous character in the continuous and plate-like medullary rays of their vascular bundles.
The ovule is usually contained in an ovary, and all plants in which the ovule is so enclosed are termed angiospermous; but in Coniferae and Cycadaceae it has no proper ovarian covering, and is called naked, these orders being denominated gymnospermous.
The seed-like body was detached as a whole from the cone, and in this condition was known for many years under the name of Cardiocarpon anomalum, having been wrongly identified with a true Gymnospermous seed so named a seed are obvious; the which is not tubular, but forms a long crevice, running in a direction radial to the strobilus.
Gymnospermous remains are common in Palaeozoic strata from the Devonian onwards.
