SOME OBSERVATIONS ON CYC AS IN LAHORE. 121 



formed last in the cluster remain sterile, their pinnae remain small, 

 the ovules are absent, and the pinnae are restricted to the upper part 

 only. This reduction gradually leads to the sharply-pointed scales 

 without any trace of the pinnae, but there is a complete series of in. 

 termediate forms between the two extremes. The sterile intermediate 

 forms very much resemble the sporophylls of Gycas circinalis without 

 the ovules. {Vide fig. 2.) 



U 



JIG-. 2. 



Cycas Circinalis. 



The accompanying photograph shows a very curiously branched 

 tree of Cycas circinalis. It is growing in the Lawrence gardens. 

 Lahore. The tree is known to have been growing there for more than 

 thirty years and on the basis of one leaf-cluster every other year 

 is more than eighty years of age. The history is that the apex 

 was cut off at the place were the first bifurcation is seen and a scar 

 is present at the fork. But after that the tree has not been 

 interfered with. The repeated dichotomies form a very interesting 

 feature of the plant and remind one of the fossil Cycadophyta like 

 Wielandiella. 1 Four distinct dichotomies can be traced from the base 



Vide Scott. Evolution of Plants, page 89. 



