88 A CYCABACEOUS PLANT FROM PORT NATAL. 



the more clayey nature of the soil, — the salt lakes seemed to have been 

 left behind, and a gradual rise was perceptible in the undulations, 

 which on their ridges had an outcrop of granite. A change for the 

 worse appeared however in the scrubs, which became even more close 

 than before, and contained considerable quantities of a broad-leaved 

 stubborn Eucalr/ptuSy that would not readily yield a passage. At sun- 

 set we encamped once more without grass or water, but our hungry 

 horses consumed the bark off every stem and the top of every bush 

 within their reach, some of them even eating the dry sticks under 

 their feet. 



{To le continued.) 



Observations on a remarkahle Cycabaceous VhAi^Tfrom Fort Natal; 

 ly Mr. John Smith, F.L.S., Curator of the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, 



Kew. 



Amongst a very interesting collection of living plants recently brought 

 by Captain Garden from Natal, and presented to the Eoyal Gardens, 

 are two stems of the remarkable plant described by Mr. Moore, at page 

 228 of the last volume of this Journal, under the provisional name of 

 Stangeria paradoxa ; so called in honour of " its enterprising discoverer," 

 Dr. Stanger, who introduced a living plant of it to the Botanic Garden at 

 Chelsea, and afforded Mr. Moore the opportunity of describing it. This 

 plant early attracted my notice, principally on account of its fern-like 

 appearance, its pinnate frond, and simple forked venation diverging 

 from a true midrib, and bearing much resemblance to some species of 

 Lomaria or Banaa ; but its solid napiform stem, from the apex of which 

 the frond was produced, with some other peculiarities of structure, gave 

 sufficient proof that it did not belong to the Filices. But although its 

 venation is totally different from the longitudinal nearly parallel venation 

 that characterizes CycadacecB^ yet I became convinced that it belonged 

 to that Order, On making further inquiry respecting this plant, I was 

 favoured by Dr. Balfour of Edinburgh with the examination of a spe- 

 cimen from Natal, labelled ^''Lomaria eriopiis, Knz. in Linnsea, vol. xii. 



7F. 



>> 



small 



about five inches long and one broad ; unfortunately it was not accom- 



specmaen 



