656 CXLV. CYCADACEX. (W.T. Thiselton Dyer.) [ Cycas. 
1. CYCAS, L. 
Shrubs or trees with a simple or rarely branched cylindric trunk clothed 
with the woody bases of the petioles. Leaves in terminal crowns, linear- 
oblong, pinnate; leaflets linear, l-nerved, quite entire, involute in ver- 
nation, lower often reduced to spines. Male cones apparently terminal, 
peduncled ; scales cuneate, closely imbricate, apex often long-acuminate; 
anthers ellipsoid, in groups of 3-8. Carpophy/ls numerous, crowded round 
apex of the stem, densely woolly, appressed into an apparently terminal 
cone, then spreading, elongate, flattened, dilated above into an entire, 
crenate or pectinate blade. Ovules 1-5 in notches on either side of the 
stalk of the carpophyll, distant, alternate or opposite. nearly erect. Seeds 
ellipsoid or globose.—Species about 12; Tropical Africa to Polynesia. 
C. revoluta, Thunb., a Japanese species with the foliage of C. Beddomei, is com- 
monly cultivated in Indian gardens. 
* Margins of leaflets flat. 
t Margins of blade of carpophylls spinous-toothed. 
l. C. circinalis, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1658; antheriferous scales long- 
acuminate, acumen turned upwards, blade of carpophyll ovate or lanceolate 
tapering into a long acumen, crenate or more or less spinous-tooth 
throughout. A. DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 526; Grah. Cat. Bomb. Pl 198; 
Dalz. & Gibs. Bomb. Fl. Suppl. 83; Mig. Monogr. 27, Anal. Bot. Ind. n. 
t. 5, £ c (antheriferous scales), and Linnea xix. 413, t. i. (carpophyll) ; Pet. 
Th. Hist. Veg. 1804, 2, t. 1 and 2; Richard Conif, t. 24-26; Bot. Mag. 
t. 2826 and 2827. Thw. Enum. 991; De Vriese Deser. t. 4 and 5; Bedd. 
Forester's Flor. 997. C. sphærica, Roxb. Fl. Ind. ii. 747. C. Thuarss, 
Br. Prodr. 947. C. madagascariensis, Mig. Comm. 127, in Linnea nm. 
699.—Todda Panna, Rheede Hort. Malab. iii. 9, t. 13-21. 
Mazapar Coast, Rheede, Buchanan, Dry hills in W. Mapras to 3500 ft., 
Beddome. CEYLON to 1500 ft., T/waites.—DisTRiB. E. Tropical Africa, Comoro 
Islands, Madagascar, Sumatra, Java. 
An evergreen palm-like tree, 15 ft. and upwards, rarely forked when old, glabro 
throughout. Leaves 5-9 ft. long; petiole 18 in. to 2 ft., with short distant slightly 
deflexed spines to near the base; leaflets 10-12 in. long, about } in. wide, elongate 
linear-lanceolate, subfaleate, acuminate. Male cone shortly peduncled, often H 
long, cylindrie-ovoid ; antheriferous scales 13-2 in. long, j-$ in. wide, oce 
deltoid, prolonged into an upward curved subulate acumen about 1 in. long, clothe 
with a brown tomentum externally, glabrous above. Carpophylls about 1 ft. long, 
long-stalked, with 3-5 pairs of ovules above the middle, ferruginous-tomentos 5 
blade 3-4 in. long, 1-1} in, wide. Seeds about the size of a pigeon’s egg. —From i 
materials at Kew obtained by Sir John Kirk and others I have no hesitation 1n 1 
fying the African plant with this species; the antheriferous scales, however, Anm 
by Du Petit Thouars and Richard have a short acumen as in C. Rumpht 5 but 
: . b." 30 
African plants appear to be variable in this respect. To C. circinalis must al been 
)a3 
, 
te), Steua- 
Nomencl. ed. 2 (Ind. Or); Miq. Linn. xvii. 702; DO. Prodr. xvi. pars bted to 
C. pluma, Bull, Retail List, 1877, 4, and C. Boddami, Hort. I am inde» ijy 
Herr Wendland for a frond of Loddige's plant, which he informs me was one hich 
obtained from Travancore ; it agrees with a plant of low and stunted habit iffer 
appears to be not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Bangalore, and only to 
from the type in the smaller leaves with narrower leaflets. 
denti- 
