iOO 



CYCADACE^. 



[chap. 



The Ephedras are leafless, much-branched shrubs, growing 

 in desert regions of the temperate zones. Associated with 

 Gnetiwi and Ephedra is the genus Welivitschia, a most 

 extraordinary and very anomalous dwarf tree of South 

 Africa, attaining a great age, with a table-like trunk seldom 

 raised more than six or twelve inches above the sand in 

 which it grows, and a single pair of leaves, persisting 

 through the Hfetime of the tree, and beheved to be the 

 first pair of leaves after the cotyledons. 



94. Natural Order, Cycadacece. — The Cycas Family. 

 Unbranched, palm-like trees with a terminal crown of 

 pinnate leaves. 



TvPE — Cycas revoluta. 



Fig. 193. Cycas revoluta. 



An unbranched, palm-like tree, sometimes ten to twelve 

 feet high, common in gardens, bearing a crown of pinnate 

 leaves with numerous, rigid, revolute-margined leaflets, and 

 dioecious flowers in large terminal cones. 



