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when fully grown; it then measured twenty-four inches in 

 length and thirty-six in girth. It grows on the summit of a 

 cylindrical trunk the thickness of a man's body, and about 

 seven feet high. Around it spring about thirty dark green 

 rigid pinnate leaves, some of whicli are above three feet long, 

 expanding on every side, and each assuming the form of a 

 beautiful curve. The pinnae or leaflets are set obliquely on 

 the mid rib of the leaf, and with a degree of obliquity corres- 

 ponding to their inbricate vernation. They amount in some 

 instances to as many as thirty-four pairs, and are about five 

 times as long as they are broad. Rhomboidal scales are 

 arranged round the axis of the cone in eight spirals, each 

 consisting of forty scales, and each scale containing two nuts. 

 The plant therefore being a female, would produce about five 

 hundred nuts, supposing some to be barren. 



This plant, which is a native of South Africa exclusively, 

 belongs to Cycadece, a natural order holding an intermediate 

 place between the Coniferse and Palms; and abounds in a 

 mucilaginous and nutritious juice. Having cut down the tree, 

 the Hottentots remove the pith, which nearly fills the trunk, 

 and place it underground for a time, in the skin of an animal ; 

 they then reduce it to powder, and knead the amylaceous fluid 

 into cakes, which they bake in hot ashes. The generic name 

 Enc,ephalartus is obtained from Greek derivatives, which may 

 be rendered pith-bread. It has been known to botanists under 

 different synonyms, i.g., Cijcas Caffra, Zamia Caffra, and Zanda 

 Oy cadis, under which name Linnseus gave it a place in his 

 work. Since then, however, botanists have divided the Zamise 

 into several distinct genera, of which the Encephalartus is 

 one. In this genus the extremities of the peltate scales 

 forming the external surface of the cone are rhomboidal ; and 

 in the present species this rhomboid is elevated into the form 

 of a truncated pyramid, each of th^ four sides of wliich is 

 covered with pointed tubercles, destitute of hairs, down, or 

 spines; it is shining like wax, and the colour is green. 



