Linnaan Society. 367 



gens," in the Botanic Garden. at Birmingham, agrees exactly in ap- 

 pearance with Lehmann's plate of E. Altensteinii, in his ' Pugillus 

 Sextus ' (Hamburg, 1834). The history of two of these plants 

 called " Zamia pungens" is remarkable. They are a male and a 

 female, of about equal size and similar appearance, and formerly 

 belonged to Lord Tankerville's collection at Walton-on-Thames. 

 When they were sold, the male plant went to Kew, the female to 

 Chatsworth. Both have flowered, and the flower of each has been 

 represented. An engraving of the female with its cone, produced 

 in 1832, was published by A. B. Lambert, Esq. (see Buckland's 

 'Bridgewater Treatise,' i. 494; ii. plate 59), and Mr. R. Hors- 

 man Solly obtained a fine drawing of the flower of the male in 

 1839 (Proceedings of Linn. Soc. p. 52 ; Annals of Nat. Hist. v. 46). 

 This male cone is preserved in the collection of the Linnean So- 

 ciety, and a cone afterwards produced by the same plant is in the 

 museum at Kew. This plant is now putting up a new crown of 

 leaves. Its fellow, the female at Chats worth, has been in fruit many 

 months *. 



* Of the cones of this plant and of the female hereafter mentioned of 

 Enc. horridus, Mr. Robert Scott of Chatswovth has furnished the following 

 measurements and observations taken at two different periods of their 

 growth. The cone of Enc. punge?is appeared on the 14th of June, and that 

 of Enc. horridus on the 13th of July 1848. The measurements of October 

 were coincident with the perfect disengagement of the cones ; and although 

 Mr. Scott has made repeated measurements since those taken in December, 

 he does not find, up to the 9th of March (the date of his communication), 

 any fm-ther increase of size. They were then fidl-grown, and the scales 

 appeared likely to drop from the axis in a few weeks. 



Encephalartus pungens. 



Oct. 9, 1848. Dec. 25, 1848. 



Length of cone, outside measvire 18^ inches 21iinches 



Circumference, 9 in. from top 33 — 36 — 



Circumference, 3 in. from base 33 — 374 — 



Number of spires 15 



Number of fertile scales in one spire ... 14 or 15 

 Number of barren scales in one spire ... 8 or 9 



Perpend, diameter of a fertile scale ly% inch 1^^ 



Transverse diameter of a fertile scale ... 2 — 2^-q 



Perpend, diameter of a barren scale ... Oy'^ — Oy'^ 



Transverse diameter of a barren scale... lj% — 1^-^ 



Each spire performs one revolution. 



Encephalartus horridus. 



Oct. 9, 1848. Dec. 25, 1848. 



Length, outside measure 10 inches 14 inches 



Circumference at base 14 — 17a 



Circumference, 3 inches from top 14 — 16^ 



Number of spires 8 



Number of scales in one spire , 14 -^ 



Perpend, diameter of one scale 1^^ — 1_3 



Transverse diameter of one scale 1^'^ — 2 



Each spire performs one revolution. 



There are no apparently barren scales. 



