1897.] Mr Seward, On Encephalartos Ghellinckii, etc. 343 



Lemaire describes both E. villosus and E. Ghellinckii, and 

 .speaks of the two species as quite distinct from the other members 

 of the genus. The two woodcuts and the coloured plate which 

 accompany the above diagnosis convey an imperfect idea of the 

 appearance of the latter species 1 . 



The plant reproduced in the Plate 2 was obtained by Mr Lynch, 

 of the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, from Messrs Sander and Co., of 

 St Albans, who received it from the interior of the Province of 

 Natal. When sent to Cambridge the stem shewed no sign of life 

 and bore traces of having been considerably charred, probably in 

 a forest fire. After lying for some months in an apparently dead 

 condition a fine crown of leaves was produced, and the accom- 

 panying photograph was taken before all the fronds had attained 

 their full development. The stem measures about 28 cm. in 

 height and 70 cm. in circumference, and is covered with the 

 characteristic armour-like investment of persistent and corky leaf- 

 bases. The leaves are a little over 90 cm. in length, and in those 

 which are not fully expanded the slender apices are bent over 

 at the tip, and the linear-filiform pinnae are crowded together like 

 the barbs of a goose-quill. The rachis of the mature frond bears 

 two rows of opposite or alternate pinnae, about 11 cm. in length 

 and 2 mm. broad, which are attached laterally to the leaf axis. 

 Both the rachis and pinnae present a woolly or tomentose appear- 

 ance, especially in the young condition. The pinnae terminate 

 in an acute spinous apex, and the margins are strongly revolute ; 

 four parallel veins traverse each pinnae, but these are hardly 

 visible in a surface-view. As shewn in the plate, the two rows of 

 pinnae form a fairly wide angle with one another, and are not 

 extended in one plane. In some of the fronds the rachis is 

 slightly twisted in a spiral, as in Macrozamia, spiralis, Miq. 

 The general appearance of Encephalartos Ghellinckii suggests a 

 distinctly xerophytic habit, and this is borne out by the thick 

 cuticle and sunken stomata of the pinnae. 



The rachis is traversed by numerous vascular bundles of the 

 typical mesarch form, characteristic of the petioles and peduncles 3 

 of recent Cycads. Each bundle is surrounded by a more or less 

 complete ring of large thick-walled fibres ; the parenchymatous 

 ground-tissue contains several large mucilage canals and the 

 hypoderm consists of strands of fibrous elements alternating with 

 parenchyma. The anatomical characters agree with those of 

 other Cycads, and especially with other species of Encephalartos. 

 A transverse section near the tip of a rachis bears a striking 



1 Lemaire, loc. cit., vol. xv. 1868, PI. 567. 



2 The photograph reproduced in the plate was taken for me by Mr Hayles of the 

 Cavendish Laboratory. 



3 vide Scott, D. H., Annals of Botany, vol. xi. 1897, p. 399. 



