Tab. 5368. — Fig. 1. Copy of the drawing of a young flowering plant, be- 

 lieved to be from fifteen to twenty years old, made by Don Ferdinand da Costa 

 Leal for Dr. Welwitsch, — on a greatly reduced scale. 2. An old plant, from 

 which the panicles have fallen, as often seen in the deserts, — reduced to about 

 one-fourteenth of the natural size. 



Tab. 5369. — Fig. 1. Longitudinal section of a very small and young speci- 

 men of the trunk, taken through both leaves, showing the insertion of the latter, 

 — natural size. 2. Peduncle and cones of hermaphrodite flowers, immediately 

 previous to expansion, — natural size. 3. Scale of the cone, with bud of herma- 

 phrodite flower in its axis. 4. Flower, with the inner perianth scale drawn back, 

 showing the staminal tube and discoid apex of the ovule. 5. Stamens and en- 

 closed ovule. 6. The same laid open, showing the position of the ovule : — magnified. 

 7. Branch of the panicle, — natural size. 8. Young scale, with the female flower 

 seated on a conical prominence of the rachis. 9. Female flower, at the period 

 when changes commence in the embryo-sac. 10. Ovule. 11. Back view of a 

 scale from the female cone: — magnified. 12. Upper scale, natural size, contain- 

 ing a nearly mature seed. 12*. (By an accident this figure stands without a 

 number on the Plate.) Ovule, with the lower part of the integument removed 

 in front, exposing the nucleus. 13. Ripe seed and base of pericarp, showing 

 the ramifications of vascular bundles in its walls. 14. Longitudinal section of 

 seed, showing the calyptriform integument at its apex, the only other integument 

 being the nucleus terminating upwards in its fleshy cone. The obovoid mass in 

 the interior is the albumen, crowned by the coiled-up suspensor. 15. Longitu- 

 dinal section of the albumen, showing the embryo, with its suspensor still at- 

 tached to the cone of the nucleus above : — magnified. 



