354 OXXX. CYCADACEA (Prain).  [ncephalarios. 
branched especially when prostrate, 12-30 ft. high, 1}-23 ft. thick, 
closely covered under the crown with 2-3 in. wide alternating scales 
and persistent imbricating leaf-bases, lower down pale, shaggy, and 
marked by the scars of the fallen scales and leaves (Gentil). Leaves 
10-20 ft. long, 13-24 ft. wide above the middle, dark green ; petiole 
and rhachis slightly angular, quite glabrous ; pinnules firmly cori- 
aceous, 60-80 pairs, ovate-lanceolate, distinctly faleate, 10-15 in. 
long, 14-2 in: wide, very oblique at the base and there rounded on 
the upper, straight or at times concave on the lower edge, apex acutely 
acuminate, pungent, margin with 6-10 strong diverging teeth along 
either edge, the tip in young plants casually 3-4-spinescent. Male 
cone peduncled, pale green to bright red, ovate to narrow-cylindric, 
6-12 in. long, 24 in. wide ; peduncle 5-10 in. long, tomentose ; scales 
spreading, obovate-deltoid, fertile portion ? in. long, rather longer 
than broad, apex rhomboid, 3-3 in. across, the lateral angles acute, 
the upper very obtuse, ridged and faintly faceted, not umbonate. 
Female cone subsessile, greyish-green (Johnston), oblong-ellipsoid, 
1} ft. long, 9 in. wide, usually 3 to each separate crown (Doggett) ; 
apex of scales wide-rhomboid, 24 in. across, # in. deep, lateral angles 
explanate, upper and lower very obtuse, vertically 2-ridged with an 
obscure central channel between the ridges, not umbonate. Seeds 
ovoid-oblong, faintly angled, 14 in. long; outer coat orange (John- 
ston).—De Wild. Ic. Hort. Then. iv. 176, 183, Not. Pl. Util. Congo, 
i. 392, tt. 27, 28, figs. 1-6 (Laurentii), and Miss. K. Laurent, 370, 
figs. 58, 60; Gentil, Rev. Hort. Belg. 1904, 8, and Gard. Chron. 
1904, xxxv. 370, fig. 163; André, Rev. Hort. 1904, 59, footnote ; 
Bois, Rev. Hort. 1907, 178, fig. 62; Pynaert, Rev. Hort. Belg. 1908, 
181,182 with fig. ; Engl. Pflanzenw. Afr. ii. 84 ; Th. & Hél. Durand, 
Syll. Fl. Congol. 649. H. sp., Johnston, Uganda Protect. i. 134, 321, 
322, figs. 216, 217 ; André, l.c., possibly, as to Biittner’s plant. 
Nile Land. Uganda: ; 500-4 ! 
Johnston epliotoyentha) ! FT es ee oe eae” 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo: Kwango district; on steep banks of the 
Saale a ae Gentil! without precise locality, Pynaert. Fr: or 
Len he Cental ri ; Mayaka, on steep banks of the Kwango opposite Kasong 
The Malele of the inhabitants of the Kwango valley, this species has no 
economic value (Gentil). In its southern locality it is said to be confined to the 
sloping banks of the Kwango and the level tract immediately behind ; Gentil, 
to whom its first introduction to cultivation in 1903 is due, thinks that here it 
may be a survival from old forests destroyed by constantly recurring fires. 
According to Johnston it is, in its northern locality, similarly restricted to ope? 
park-like forest among boulders in the Mpanga valley near the south-eastern 
base of Ruwenzori. André states that a species of Encephalartos was met wit 
by Bittner during his journey in 1884-5 across Angola and the south-west Congo. 
so, the species in question was probably that here described; Bittner 
route followed the left bank of the Kwango. There is, however, no allusion to 
the species in the list of plants collected by Biittner (Mitteil. Afr. Gesellsch. 
Deutschl. v. 253-266) nor is it included among the new plants described by him 
in 1889 (Verh. Bot. Ver. Brand. xxxi. 64). A second introduction of £. dauren- 
tianus, from the Kwango district, was effected by Pynaert prior to 1906. 
