THE AFRICAN CYCADS 45 



Rattray, principal of Selborne College at East London, 

 who is interested principally in the classics but knows 

 more about cycads than anyone else in Africa, told me 

 that he had seen specimens at Port Elizabeth, and that 

 he regarded this as the western limit. 



Slangeria is abundant about Kentani in the Transkei. 

 * My friend Mr. Walter Saxton, who has published various 

 papers on African gymnosperms, and who was then at 

 the South African College at Cape Town, later at 

 Gujarat Colfege, Ahmedabad, India, and who is now 

 an officer in the British Army, arranged to have material 

 collected and fixed for me. Miss Sarah Van Rooyen, 

 of Kentani, has done this work for five years, collecting 

 such a close series of stages that my study has been 

 scarcely handicapped by the great distance. 



ENCEPHALARTOS 



The other African genus is Encephalartos {iv 

 K€(f)a\rj apTos), very appropriately called the bread 

 palm, because the natives made meal from the starchy 

 seeds. It has about a dozen species, one of which is 

 found as far north as the equator, but most of which 

 are south of Zululand, while two or more are found 

 farther west than Port Elizabeth, so that the range is 

 more extensive than that of Slangeria, with which it is 

 often associated. 



The first field studies were made in Zululand, where 

 Encephalartos brachyphyllus, a species with a tuberous, 

 subterranean stem and rather short leaves, is abundant, 

 associated everywhere with Slangeria. Since the cones 

 had not quite reached the stage most approved by 

 baboon and monkey epicures, it was easy to secure 



