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The Encephalartoses of Southern Africa. 



The President read the following memorandum on these plants : — 

 The important labours of Miquel and Lehmann abroad, and those 

 of Yates in this country, have rendered the study of Cycadeae so 

 interesting a subject, that the following notes, extracted from a 

 letter of Charles Zeyher, dated Cape Town, April 28, 1852, can- 

 not but be welcome: — " Encephalartos Frederici-Guilielmi," says 

 the writer, " grows on the Winterberg, the theatre of the Caffre 

 war, and would at present be diflScult to obtain. E. Altensteini 

 is found in woods on the Boschman's River, not far from the virgin 

 forests of Olifuntshoek. E. tridentatus occurs also, but sparingly, iii 

 that neighbourhood. E. horridus is probably identical with E. lanu- 

 ginosus; but it requires yet some examination to decide this point 

 finally. E. cycadifolius is a small and very distinct species ; and 

 there is reason to believe that E. pungens is likewise a good species, 

 differing, as it does, both in its habit and locality from E. Caffer. 

 E. longifolius is, with more reason, considered the same as E. Caf- 

 fer. Age, and perhaps also the effect of soil and locality, make 

 the leaflets of E. Caffer assume different forms which may have 

 given rise among botanists to the creation of different species. A 

 person possessing some tact has no difliculty in detecting among these 

 and similar varieties the play of Nature, and discerning the true limit 

 of species. It is not impossible, however, that E. longifolius does exist ; 

 but 1 do not remember having ever met with it, and have now been 

 in Southern Africa upwards of twenty-five years. E. pungens, at 

 least the species which I consider as such, partakes of the habit, and 

 grows in the same soil and locality as, E. horridus ; but the leaves are 

 longer and regular, the leaflets oblong-lanceolate, very entire, and 

 acutely pointed, and the stem is much higher ; the cones are, in com- 

 parison with those of E. Caffer, more cylindrical and longer, and 

 approach more those of E. horridus. I am going to examine once 

 more all the species, in their natural state, and shall be most willing 

 to communicate the result." 



Joakim Frederick Schouw. 



The President read the following notice of M. Schouw, supplied 

 by a botanical friend : — 



Science has sustained another loss. Schouw, the great phyto-geo- 

 grapher, is no more ; and his death is the more severely felt, as his 



