46 THE LIVING CYCADS 



material and to distinguish male and female plants, 

 insuring both genders for the collection in the botanical 

 garden at the University of Chicago. 



About twenty miles from Mtunzini, in the midst of 

 the Stangeria and Ence phalartos brachyphyllns, stands a 

 single specimen of another species of Encephalartos 

 more than ten feet in height. They say that it is the 

 only cycad, with a trunk, within a distance of fifty miles. 

 There had been three trunks, doubtless derived from buds 

 at the base of an old plant which had fallen hundreds 

 of years ago, but one of the trunks had been cut off and 

 taken to Durban, where it is now one of the finest cycads 

 in the botanical garden. The species has been called 

 Encephalartos Altensteinii hispinosa, and has also been 

 called Encephalartos Woodii, but to me it seemed to come 

 within a reasonable range of variation which should be 

 expected in E. Altensteinii. My Zulu guide, the son of 

 a Zulu chief, was thoroughly familiar with Zululand 

 and had been well coached by Mr. Wylie; otherwise 

 there would have been little likelihood of finding such 

 an isolated specimen in a hilly country, with numerous 

 stretches of forest and bush. 



The principal studies were made in the vicinity of 

 Queenstown, Cathcart, East London, Grahamstown, and 

 Port Elizabeth, a region lying between the Drakensburg 

 ranges and the coast, and between Durban and Cape 

 Town, and containing nine species of Encephalartos, 

 besides several good Stangeria localities. 



One can go by boat from Durban to East London, 

 but I wanted to visit Queenstown, about one hundred 

 and fifty miles north of East London, and Cathcart, 

 about fifty miles farther south; besides, I had seen 



