. it is so singular." [This latter statement is most discredit- 

 able to the authorities of that Colonial Garden, and Buch as we 

 trust is unknown in any other.] 



Descr. In this we shall confine ourselves to the more popular 

 portion of Dr. Hooker's. We must refer for the more scientific 

 history to the Linnean Transactions. "It is a woody plant, said to 

 attain a century in duration, with obconic trunk about two feet 

 long, of which a few inches only rise above the soil, presenting 

 the appearance of a flat two-lobed depressed mass, sometimes, 

 according to Dr. YVelwitsch, attaining 14 feet in circumference, 

 and looking like a round table. When full grown, it is dark- 

 brown, hard and cracked over the whole surface, much like the 

 burnt crust of a loaf of bread : the lower portion forms a stout 

 tap-root, buried in the soil, and branching downwards at the end. 

 From deep grooves in the circumference of the depressed mass, 

 two enormous leaves are given off, each six feet long (and pro- 

 bably often much more) when full grown, one corresponding to 

 each lobe of the trunk : these are quite flat, linear, very lea- 

 thery, and split to the base into innumerable thongs, that lie 

 curling upon the surface of the soil. Its discoverer describes 

 these same two leaves as being present from the very earliest 

 condition of the plant, and assures me that they are in fact de- 

 veloped from the two cotyledons of the seed, and are persistent, 

 being replaced by no others. From the circumference of the 

 tabular mass above, but close to the insertion of the leaves, 

 spring stout, dichotomously branched cymes, nearly a foot high, 

 bearing small erect scarlet cones, which eventually become ob- 

 long, and attain the size of those of the common Spruce Fir. 

 1 he scales of the cones are very closely imbricated, and contain, 

 when young and still very small, solitary flowers, which in some 

 cones are hermaphrodite (structurally but not functionally), in 

 others female. I he hermaphrodite flower consists of a perianth 

 ot tour pieces, six monadelphous stamens, with trilocular glo- 

 bose anthers surrounding a central ovule, the integument of 

 which is produced into a styliform sigmoid tube, terminated by 

 a discoid apex. The female flower consists of a solitary erect 

 ovule, contained in a compressed utricular perianth. The mature 

 cone is tetragonous, and contains a broadly-winged/mY in each 

 scale. Every part of the plant exudes a transparent gum. "- 

 TJelwitscha is a dicotyledonous plant, belonging to the gymno- 



w!?hTth T? ? , fl ChSS ' and havin 8 a ™y dosefffinity 



known if and G l GtUm > but dlfferin g fo" all previously 



wantLTTIT 8 m haVmg her ^phrodite flowers, and in 



St es D S r " £oT g 7 00d - Cens/ ' Notwithstanding these 



Sfflk^i^K 1 ^ 2t ln the Nat 0rd - <*««<*«> of 



wnicn it is the only South African representative. 



