656 CXLV. 'CYCADACE.S. (W. T. Thiselton Dyer.) [Cycas. 



1. CYCAS, L. 



Shrubs or trees with a simple or rarely branched cylindric trunk clothed 

 with the woody bases of the petioles. Leaves in terminal crowns, linear- 

 oblong, pinnate ; leaflets linear, 1-nerved, quite entire, involute in ver- 

 nation, lower often reduced to spines. Male cones apparently terminal, 

 peduncled ; scales cuneate, closely imbricate, apex often long-acuminate; 

 anthers ellipsoid, in groups of 3-5. Carpophylls numerous, crowded round 

 apex of the stem, densely woolly, appressed into an apparently terminal 

 cone, then spreading, elongate, flattened, dilated above into an entire, 

 crenate or pectinate blade. Ovules 1-5 in notches on either side of the 

 stalk of the carpophyll, distant, alternate or opposite, nearlv erect. Seeds 

 ellipsoid or globose. Species about 12 ; Tropical Africa to Polynesia. 



C. revoluta, Thunb. , a Japanese species with the foliage of C. Beddomei, is com- 

 monly cultivated in Indian gardens. 



* Margins of leaflets flat. 



f Margins of blade of carpophylls spinous-toothed. 



1. C. circinalis. Linn. Sp. PL 1658 ; antheriferous scales long- 

 acuminate, acumen turned upwards, blade of carpophyll ovate or lanceolate 

 tapering into a long acumen, crenate or more or less spinous-toothed 

 throughout. A. DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 526; G-rah. Cat. 'Bomb. PI 198; 

 Dah. 4' Gibs. Bomb. Fl. Suppl. 83; Miq. Monogr. 27, Amd. Hot-. Ltd. ii. 

 t. 5, f c (antheriferous scales), and LirnKpn xix. 413, t. i. (carpophyll) , Pet. 

 Th. Hist. Ve0. 1804. 2, t. 1 and 2 ; Richard Conif. t. 24-26 ; Sot. Mag. 

 t. 2826 and 2827. Thw. Enum. 29 t; De Vriese Desor. t. 4 and 5; Bedd. 

 Foresters Flor. 227. C. sphserica, Eoxb. FL Ind. iii. 747. C. Thuarsii, 

 Br. Prodr. 347. C. madagascariensis, Miq. Comm. 127, in Linnaa xvii. 

 699. Todda Panna, Eheede Hort. Malab. iii. 9, t. 13-21. 



MALABAR COAST, Eheede, Buchanan. Dry hills in W. MADRAS to 3500 ft., 

 Beddome. CEYLON to 1500 ft., Thivaites. DISTKIB. E. Tropical Africa, Comoro 

 Islands, Madagascar, Sumatra, Java. 



An evergreen palm-like tree, 15 ft. and upwards, rarely forked when old, glabrous 

 throughout. Leaves 59 ft. long-; petiole 18 in. to 2 ft., with short distant slightly 

 deflexed spines to near the base ; leaflets 10-12 in. long, about | in. wide, elongate- 

 linear -lanceolate, subfalcate, acuminate. Male cone shortly peduncled, often l\- ft. 

 long, cylindric-ovoid ; antheriferous scales 1J-2 in. long, V-| in. wide, obovate- 

 deltoid v prolonged into an upward curved subulate acumen about 1 in. lonir, clothed 

 with a brown tomentum externally, glabrous above. Carpophnlls about 1 ft. long, 

 long-stalked, with 3-5 pairs of ovules above the middle, ferruginous-tomeptose ; 

 blade 34 in. long, 1 1- in. wide. Seed.-; about the size of a pigeon's egg. -From the 

 materials at Kew obtained by Sir John lurk and others I Ir.ve ao hesitation in identi- 

 fying the African plant with this species; the antheriferous bc.urs, however, figured 

 by Du Petit Thouars and Richard bave a short acumen as in C. Ilmnphii ; but the 

 African plants appear to be variable in this respect. To C. circinalin must also be 

 referred a form, probably existing under unfavourable conditions, \\ hi<-li ha^ *been 

 several times introduced into cultivation from S. India (see Gard. Chron. Aug. 27, 

 1881, 270, 271). It is C. squamosa, Lodd. Cat.; C.squarrosa (sphalniate], Slcud. 

 Nomencl. ed. 2 (Ind. Or); Miq. Linn. xvii. 702; DC. Prodr. xvi. pars 2, 529; 

 C. pluma, Bull, Eetail List, 1877. 4, and C. Boddami, Hort. I am indebted to 

 Herr Wendland for a frond of Loddige's plant, which he informs me was originally 

 obtained from Travancore ; it agrees with a plant of low and stunted habit which 

 appears to be not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Bangalore, and only to differ 

 from the type in the smaller leaves with narrower leaflets. 



