Cycas. DiOECiA monandria. 747 



of thirty years, to the height often, or twelve feet; I mean 

 the trunk, every one of which produces ofisets in abundance, 

 by which the plant is readily multiplied. But 1 see no rea- 

 son to think it can ever be made a useful article of diet. I 

 have never found the male tree. 



3. C. sphaerica. Roxb. 



Leaves pinnate, sides of the petioles armed with a short 

 spine; leaflets from eighty to one hundred pair, sub-alter- 

 nate, linear, spinous-pointed. Scales of the male strobile with 

 long-, curved, subulate points. Drupes spherical. 



This additional, charming' species of Cycas was Avith C. 

 circinalis, introduced into the Botanic garden from the Mo- 

 luccas in 1798-9. In 1806 and the following- year several of 

 both male and female plants, blossomed in the month of May. 

 The female of one of those ripened its seeds in January and 

 February, and now, September, those seeds are beg-inning- to 

 vegetate, after having- been in the ground about six months 

 The plants of this species differ in habit but little from cir- 

 cinalis ; I will therefore only note wherein they differ from 

 each other. 



Trutik of both the male and female trees, are hitherto, in 

 this species from thirty-four to fifty-four inches in circumfer- 

 ence ; it is therefore thicker than circinalis, in other respects 

 they are alike. Leaves, in this species they are smaller, the 

 petioles longer and more armed, and the leaflets more numer- 

 ous, viz. from eighty to one hundred, sub-alternate pairs. In 

 circinalis they are from fifty to sixty, narrower, and straighter. 

 Male. In this the strobile,or conchas the same appearanceofa 

 pine-apple, as it has also in the other, but the scales taper from 

 the middle, into very long-, incurved, subulate points ; whereas in 

 circinalis they are almost truncated, with a point more or less 

 long-, rising- nearly at right angles, from the exterior upper 

 angle. Anthers the same in both. About the time the cone, or 

 flower, begins to decay, it is, as in circinalis forced to one side 

 by the annual tuft of foliage bursting from the crown of the 



4P2 



