225 
THE CYCAD COLLECTION. 
This collection, formerly located in the large palm-house in 
conservatory range no. I, was transferred during the summer to 
no. 2, located on the east side of the grounds, a short distance 
to the north of the road leading from the Long Bridge to White 
Plains Road. The collection is placed in the east house of the 
transverse ra 
e cyc Ga an interes group related to the ferns in 
some particulars, while in others they resemble t 
to which belong the conifers. In Mesozoic time they were mich 
more numerous than now, as attested by the large number of 
fossil remains found, forming a considerable portion of the vege- 
tation of that period in the earth’s history. The living species 
are but reminders of the t, and are rather local in their dis- 
tribution, no one locality on credited with m 
The cycad family is world-wide in its aicton being con- 
fined, however, to tropical and the warmer temperate regions, It 
comprises nine genera and between eighty and ninety species. 
The genera Cycas, Stangeria, Bowenia, Encephalartos and Mac- 
rozamia are confined to the ol while Dioon, Zamia, Cera- 
tozamia and Microcycas are as rigidly pesinced to the new. 
Of the old world genera Cycas is the best known and one of 
the largest, containing about sixteen species which are spread 
throughout tropical Asia, Australia, Polynesia, the East Indies, 
the Moluccas and Madagascar. This genus is represented in the 
collection by several species. One of these, Cyeas circinalis, a 
native of the East Indies, is made prominent at the present time 
by a large specimen which has developeda staminate cone. The 
species itself is of common occurrence in cultivation, but of all the 
specimens which have been in the Garden collection only two have 
proved to be staminate, all the others being pistillate plants. The 
difference in form of the inflorescence of the two is very marked, 
so great indeed that one would hardly suspect either of being 
the same species as the other, judging from the inflorescence 
alone. The staminate cone is depicted in the accompanying illus- 
