During course of evolution (  if you believe in theory of evolution ) cycads were once called as living fossil . Most of the plants of this group became extinct and fossil. However when Cycas was discovered from China where it is found on places of worship as in Japan also, it was named a living fossil.
The plant belong to group Gymnosperms or  naked seeded plants. The seeds are not enclosed inside the ovary and are borne on tips of highly reduced leaves known as megasporophylls on the female plants . The sexes are separate. Male cones and female megasporophylls are borne on different plants.
It gives a wonderful look to see the seeds directly borne on the leaves ( see below)

A Cycas revoluta female plant  - megasporophylls bearing seeds in the greenhouse of Justus Liebig Universitat Giessen which has one of the oldest botanical garden of the world.