i62 GYMNOSPERMS 



without spoiling the name of a plant. It is to be hoped that the 

 growing practice of decapitalization will discourage commemorative 

 names in botany, as it has in zoology and geology. How much better 

 Enccphalarlos Iwrridus and Ccralozamia mcxicana than Smithiajones- 

 iana and Wangia yenii. 



Cycads, in the field, vary with age and with other factors. One 

 who has studied cycads in the held would hesitate to determine most 

 of the species from herbarium specimens. 



The latest monograph is that of Schuster.^'" There is a splendid 

 bibliography and some original work, but what seems to be a total 

 lack of study in the field. The keys are in Latin, as taxonomists 

 claim they should be. The rising generation knows little or no Latin, 

 but must know English, German, and French. Keys in any of these 

 three languages would be more useful to nearly all of the people who 

 might want to do some identification. 



Cycads have several characters which could be made the basis for 

 taxonomic keys. Most of them are composite, using both vegetative 

 and reproductive features. In cultivation, where individuals are few 

 and coning is rare, a key based entirely upon vegetative features 

 would be desirable. Sister Mary Alice Lamb"^ devised a key to 

 the genera based upon the leaves. Only Cycas and Stangcria have a 

 midrib in the leaflet; and Cycas has only a midrib with no lateral 

 veins, while Stangeria has a midrib with lateral veins. Bowenia is 

 the only cycad with twice-pinnate leaves. Dioon is the only cycad 

 with the insertion of the leaflet as broad as any other part of it. 

 Macrozamia is the only one with a gland at the base of the leaflet ; 

 but in some species of this large genus the gland is obscure or may 

 be absent. However, its presence identifies most of the species as 

 belonging to this genus. In Microcycas the leaflets are reflexed on the 

 rachis; in the rest they are either flat or turn up a little. Of the other 

 three, Zamia has the rachis subcircinate in vernation; while in En- 

 ccphalarlos and Ccralozamia it is erect. In Ccralozamia, the leaflets 

 are long, narrow, and taper gradually to a point, and are always en- 

 tire {inlegerrima) . In Enccphalarlos the margin of the leaflet is very 

 jagged in some species and the lower leaflets are more and more re- 

 duced until, at the base, they become mere spines. In Ccralozamia 

 there is no such reduction. 



