The male and female flowers are both produced in catkins, and both consist only of scales. The pollen of the male flowers is very abundant, and is discharged freely in fine weather. The female flowers form cones, consisting of numerous scales, at the base of each of which are two winged seeds. The timber abounds in resin.
ORDER CLXXVIII.-CYCADEÆ. (See Chap. XII. P. [229].)
These singular plants have thick timber-like trunks, yet they can hardly be called trees, as they increase in height by a single terminal bud. The leaves are pinnate, and they unroll, when they expand, like those of the ferns. The male flowers are in cones, and the female ones either in cones, or produced on the margin of contracted leaves. The principal genera are Zamia and Cycas, and one species of the latter yields a kind of sago; the true kind being a product of a species of Palm.
CHAPTER III.
PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS.—MONOCOTYLEDONEÆ.
All the trees belonging to this division are natives of tropical countries; and they, as well as all the herbaceous plants belonging to it, are distinguished by the veins of their leaves being never branched, but principally in parallel lines. These plants are re-divided into those with a perianth, which are called the Petaloideæ, and in which are included the Orchidaceæ and the bulbous-rooted plants; and those without a perianth, which are called Glumaceæ, and in which are included the grasses, and sedges.