Tab. 5398. 



BOWENIA SPECTABILIS. 



Australian JBowenia. 



Nat. Ord. Cycade^e. — Dicecia Polyandria. 



Gen. Char, Mores amenta cei. Ament. masc.: parva, ovoidea, obtusa. Squa- 

 ma late obovato-cuneata?, vix stipitatse, crassiusculse, apice dilatatse truncatae et 

 tomentosae. Antherce basin versus squamae utrinque aggregatse, confertaa, sub- 

 numerosae, minutae, 1-lqculares, rima longitudinal! dehiscentes. Ament. fcem. 

 ignota. — Planta elata; caudice brevi, crasso, suhcylindraceo, pro maxima parte 

 terra abscondito, lenticellis magnis notato, folia 1-2 ampla apice emiltente. Folia 

 longe et gracile petiolata ; petiolo teretiwculo, ima basi tantum lanuginosa; 

 lamina bipinnatisecla , circumscriptione suborbiculari, ampla; racbi ramisque gra- 

 cilibus, patentibns; pinnulis oblique falcato-lanceolatis, breviter petiolatis petio- 

 lulis dccurrentibus cum rachi non articulatis, longe caiidato-acuminatis, integer- 

 rimis v. unidentatis, flaccidis, utrinque late viridibus, venis parallelis parce 

 anastomosantibm. Ament. masc.: solitaria, breviter stipitata, -|-f vnc. longa. 

 Hook. fit. 



Bowenia apectabilis. Hook. v/x. 



With the exception of Stangeria paradoxa (Tab. nostr. 5121), 

 no more remarkable Cycadeous plant has been discovered than 

 the subject of our present Plate, and like that plant it differs 

 from every member of its Order in the nature of its leaves, which 

 present remarkable analogies with those of the Ferns ; whereas, 

 however, the anomalous character of Stanaeria is afforded by 

 the venation of the pinnules, which so exactly simulated those 

 of a Lomaria, that two authors had (unknown to one another) 

 referred it to that genus. The resemblance in the case of 

 JBowenia is in some respects carried further, inasmuch as the leaf 

 is not simply pinnate, as in Slangeria and other Cycadea, but 

 decompound, like a Marattia. 



The discoverer of this singular plant was the late Allan Cun- 

 ningham, from whom we received upwards of forty years ago a 

 portion of a frond, collected at the Endeavour river (lat. 15°S.) 

 in 1819, and referred by him provisionally to AroideaiBracontiam 

 polyphyllum, ins.). Nothing, however, was known further of it till 



SEPTEMBER 1 ST. 1 ^ Bo. 



