1849.] Linnean Society. 17 



Encephalartus Altensteinii. — There are at Chatsworth two splen- 

 did specimens of this species, which are labeled as such. Some of 

 their leaves are two metres long. One of these two specimens has 

 thrown out bulbs, producing offsets of considerable size. On com- 

 paring the leaves of the offsets with those of the parent plant, the 

 former are observed to be much more spinous and smaller than the 

 latter, the number of the leaflets also being much less. This indi- 

 vidual therefore affords a decisive proof that such diversities in the 

 leaves may depend upon the age of the plant, or upon other circum- 

 stances. Hence it may be inferred, that many individuals, which in 

 our conservatories are distinguished by other names, and especially 

 many of those called " Zamia pungens," or " Encephalartus pungens," 

 belong to the Encephalartus Altensteinii of Lehmann and Miquel. 

 Lehmann assigned this name and made his description of the species 

 from the study of specimens directly imported from South Africa. 

 But if the view here taken be correct, the species was already com- 

 mon in Europe under other names. A plant called " Zamia pun- 

 gens," in the Botanic Garden at Birmingham, agrees exactly in ap- 

 pearance with Lehmann's plate of E. Altensteinii, in his ' Pugillus 

 Sextus ' (Hamburg, 1834). The history of two of these plants 

 called "Zamia pungens" is remarkable. They are a male and a 

 female, of about equal size and similar appearance, and formerly 

 belonged to Lord Tankerville's collection at Walton-on-Thames. 

 When they were sold, the male plant went to Kew, the female to 

 Chatsworth, Both have flowered, and the flower of each has been 

 represented. An engraving of the female with its cone, produced 

 in 1832, was published by A. B. Lambert, Esq. (see Buckland's 

 'Bridgewater Treatise,' i. 494; ii. plate 59), and Mr. R. Hors- 

 man Solly obtained a fine drawing of the flower of the male in 

 1839 (Proceedings of Linn. Soc. p. 52 ; Annals of Nat. Hist. v. 46). 

 This male cone is preserved in the collection of the Linnean So- 

 ciety, and a cone afterwards produced by the same plant is in the 

 museum at Kew. This plant is now putting up a new crown of 

 leaves. Its fellow, the female at Chatsworth, has been in fruit many 

 months*. 



* Of the cones of this plant and of the female hereafter mentioned of 

 Enc. horridus, Mr. Robert Scott of Chatsworth has furnished the following 

 measurements and observations taken at two different periods of their 

 growth. The cone of Enc. piuigeiis appeared on the 14th of June, and that 

 oi Enc. horridus on the 13th of July 1848. The measurements of October 

 were coincident with the perfect disengagement of the (;ones ; and although 

 Mr. Scott has made repeated measurements since those taken in December, 

 he does not find, up to the 9th of March (the date of his communication), 



No. XXXIX. — Proceedings of thk Linnean Society. 



