The FLOWERS are without perianth. The MALE FLOWER is sometimes an enormous collection of stamens (Fig. 258), which are flat in some (_Cycas_, Fig. 241), shield-like in others (_Zamia_, _Ceratozamia_) like the sporophylls in Horsetail (Fig. 259); but in all, the pollen-sacs are situated in large and varying numbers on the back of the stamens, and arranged in groups of 2–5, like the sporangia in the sori of the Ferns (Fig. 241 _b_, _c_). FEMALE FLOWERS _are wanting_ in _Cycas_, because the carpels do not terminate the apical growth of the stem. After a group of foliage-and of scale-leaves, a group of carpels is developed, which are pinnate and resemble the foliage-leaves, bearing on their edges a number of ovules (most frequently 5–6) (Figs. 245, 256); the same stem produces successively scale-leaves, foliage-leaves, and carpels. The differentiation is not much more advanced than in certain Ferns (_Struthiopteris_, _Blechnum_), where barren and fertile leaves of different form regularly alternate. _The other genera have female flowers_; the carpels are shield-like in _Zamia_ and _Ceratozamia_ (Fig. 246), and collected into cone-like flowers, which terminate the growth of the stem (Fig. 259). The number of ovules in these instances is two to each carpel. The SEEDS are large (most frequently 2–6 centimetres long) and plum-like; the external layer of the testa is fleshy, while the internal one is hard and horny. There are two systems of vascular bundles in the testa, one outside, the other inside the stone. The embryo is straight, attached to the end of the suspensor, which is often long, filamentous, and rolled up; it has one or two cotyledons. The embryo in _Ceratozamia_ and others is very slightly developed, at the time when the ripe seed is detached from the carpel; and it is not until after sowing that its further development and germination proceed. This calls to mind the Cryptogams, especially _Selaginella_, whose macrospores are thrown off filled with endosperm; but the oosphere is not fertilised till after the separation of the macrospore from the parent-plant, while in the Cycadeæ fertilisation is effected before the separation. In _Cycas_ the testa may rupture, and the endosperm grow and become green in the light, even though no embryo has been formed. This also is an indication of its prothalloid nature.