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INTRODUCTORY. 



ingens and C. gigantea. Balantiitm antarcticum, 40 cm. in diameter by 3 meters 

 in height, suggests a size possibly reached or exceeded by Cycadeoidea Jenneyana ; 

 and Alsopkila exce/sa, reaching a diameter of 60 cm. and a height of 22 meters, 

 closely agrees in its stately proportions with the Australian Cycas Normanbyaiia. 



Fig. 8. — Cycas tevoluta. — " ShTshi " or lions-head variety. 



As grown by Japanese gardeners and made to branch artificially, the resultant form exactly paralleling silicified 



Mesozoic trunks like Cycadeoidea Marshiana. Not in full leaf. About one-tenth natural size. 



BRANCHING TRUNKS. 



The cycadaceous series of plants, like the vegetation of palm-like form, is 

 primarily simple-stemmed and never exhibits the free branching seen in the Lepi- 

 dodendrons, Sigillarias, and Cordaitales on the one side, and the more recent freely 

 ramifying trees on the other. But at the same time branching is even characteristic 

 in certain of the cycads, while fine examples of branching palms, comparable in 

 this respect, are to be seen in Borassus flabellifer and Cocos micifera (1). The 

 branching of tree ferns is fairly common. 



