402 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
adaxial surface, but of course they are on the under surface and the 
tips point up instead of down. His description of “seeds about 
4°™ in diameter” needs confirmation; 4°™ in length would be more 
probable. 
In general habit, in the straight, stiff, ascending leaves, D. Pur- 
pusii resembles D. edule, and the leaflets have the texture of those of 
D. edule, but they retain in some degree the spinulose character of those 
of D. spinulosum. In the number of sporangia on a microsporo- 
phyll, D. Purpusii is intermediate between D. spinulosum and D. 
edule. The ovulate sporophyll is rather slender and tapers gradually 
to a point, in this feature resembling D. edule and differing decidedly 
from D. spinulosum. 
Dioon spinulosum Dyer was described by E1cHLER’ in 1883, 
the description being based upon a few leaves and a few trunks with- 
out leaves. Since the largest leaf was only 65°™ in length, the plants 
must have been very small. One of the trunks received by EICHLER 
produced a leaf which his figure shows to be that of a plant only a 
few years old. The material came from a nursery in Cordoba, State 
of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and, according to the gardener, the plants grew 
wild in the neighborhood of Tuxtla. The striking feature is the 
spinulose leaf. No cones were found, and so EIcHLER remarks that 
it might seem doubtful whether the plant is really a Dioon (“Es 
méchte daher zweifelhaft erscheinen, ob die Pflanze wirklich ein 
Dioon ist’’). 
Dyer obtained a leaf from Yucatan, and since the locality was 
given as Progreso, the leaf probably came from a cultivated specimen. 
EICHLER agreed that Dyer should describe the new species. The 
description, based upon the single leaf, is as follows:4 
Folia breviter petiolata, elongato-lanceolata, rigida, plana, pinnatisecta, ad 
3 pedes longa; segmentis circiter 70 utroque latere, mediis majoribus subop- 
positis lineari-lanceolatis breviter acuminatis 18-23-nerviis, ad 4 pollices longis 
media latitudine semipollicaribus, basi angustiore, utroque latere spinulis pun- 
gentibus basim versus integerrimis, inferioribus in dentes palmatifidos desinenti- 
bus. Sétrobili..... South Mexico, Tuxtla; Yucatan, Progreso. ae 
Hoge). Herb. Kew. 
3 EICHLER, A. W., Ein neues Dioon. Gartenflora 2:411-413- 
883. 
4 Dyer, W. T. iste Cycadaceae, in Biologia ee -Americana 
Botany 3:190-195. 1882-18 
