THE AFRICAN CYCADS 55 



as the diagnosis is concerned, a young plant forty or 

 fifty years old might be labeled E. Altensteinii, while the 

 same plant, fifty years later, would be diagnosed as 

 E. coffer. However, it must be admitted that the plants 

 at Van Staadens lose the spiny character much earher 

 than do the typical specimens of E. Altensteinii in the 

 East London district. Here again local botanists have 

 amused themselves by selecting leaves from a single 

 plant of E. Altensteinii and sending them to large 

 European herbaria for identification. Carefully selected 

 leaves of either E. Altensteinii or E. coffer will satisfy the 

 diagnostic requirements of both species. The joke 

 simply shows that, in some cases at least, diagnosis 

 should be based upon a study of plants in the field. 



The young cones look alike in the two species. A 

 prolonged study of mature cones might show something 

 distinctive, but here again the baboons carry away the 

 cones before the seeds are ripe, and I did not see a single 

 mature female cone in the field, although there were 

 hundreds of plants. Having found a nearly mature 

 cone not far from the waterworks which supply Port 

 Elizabeth, I arranged to have it covered, and to have 

 seeds sent to Chicago when they were ripe. I finally 

 received a photograph of a man with a rifle in his hand 

 and a big baboon propped up beside him. The accom- 

 panying note informed me that the seeds were inside. 



The female cones are huge, and the larger plants 

 frequently bear two or three at a time. Three large 

 cones from a single plant in the botanical garden had a 

 total weight of more than one hundred and forty pounds. 

 Mr. Butters said that when there is a single cone it may 

 reach a weight of ninety pounds, the largest cone known 



