_Seeds._ In the great majority of recent species the seeds may be described as large and afford a striking contrast to the small seeds of the Mesozoic Bennettitales. A feature of interest from the point of view of comparison with Palaeozoic seeds is the absence of a resting stage, germination in some cases following seed-fall without an interval. As Warming pointed out, the embryo is often undeveloped when the seeds are shed. An interesting fact is recorded by Capt. Dorrien-Smith[62] with regard to seed-dispersal: he describes the heavy pebble-like seeds of a _Macrozamia_ as being hurled from the ripe cones a distance of 12 ft. The seeds of _Cycas_ are platyspermic; the woody shell exposed on removal of the outer flesh is slightly flattened and has two prominent angles, but three-angled seeds may occur as in _Ginkgo biloba_ (fig. 631, C). In other genera the seeds are radiospermic. The seed of _Encephalartos Altensteinii_[63] (fig. 396, D) has a square-cut distal end with a small papilla at the summit of the unusually long micropylar canal (17 mm.). The stone of this seed (fig. 396, C) shows parallel curved ridges which mark the position of vascular strands in the inner region of the outer flesh. The large ovules of _Cycas circinalis_[64] have an integument 1 cm. thick consisting of an outer and inner flesh and an intervening stony layer which reaches its greatest development at the base and apex. Three vascular strands enter the base of the seed, the concentric strand breaks up in the broad inner flesh into a group of bundles which embrace but do not penetrate the lower end of the nucellus. Each of the two lateral strands branches in the outer flesh near its entrance into the seed; the outer and larger collateral and mesarch bundle passes up close to the surface of the shell to the seed-apex, while the inner branch penetrates the shell and, occasionally branching, passes up the inner region of the inner flesh as far as the micropyle. In other seeds the tracheal supply of the outer flesh consists of several bundles and not two as in _Cycas_. The inner flesh abuts on the nucellus and is connected with it except at the apex (fig. 396, B). In ripe seeds the nucellus is reduced to a thin membrane enclosing the large megaspore at the upper end of which is a depression (fig. 396, B′) or sometimes two depressions (fig. 396, I) in the prothallus containing the archegonia. In the seed of _Dioon edule_[65] (fig. 396, A) the position of the absciss-layer (_s_) is indicated by a slight transverse constriction. In the seeds of _Bowenia_, constructed on the same plan, the inner series of vascular strands appears to be nucellar in position, thus differing from the strands in _Dioon_, _Cycas_, and other genera which are confined to the integument. Miss Kershaw[66] in describing _Bowenia_ speaks of an upper and a lower pollen-chamber; the former serves as a storage-place for the microspores prior to their further development in the lower chamber.