370 Linnaan Society. 



of woody fibre. These latter, being destined to supply the scales, 

 first pursued a course parallel to the axis, and then turned outwards 

 to the bases of the scales. 



The following are the dimensions of this magnificent plant, ex- 

 pressed in metres and centimetres, one metre being equal to 39*371 

 English inches : — 



Dimensions of the trunk. M# Ct 



Length 2 30 



Girth at the narrowest part 1 2 



Girth just below the leaves 1 8 



Girth at the thickest parts, viz. at the ground and a little \ ^ lg 



above the middle / 



Dimensions of a large leaf. 



Length of leaf, including foot-stalk 1 10 



Length of foot-stalk 25 



Length of largest leaflets 14 



Greatest breadth of ditto 3| 



Dimensions of the cone. 



Length, including peduncle 58 



From the apex to the base, measured outside 65 



From the apex to the termination of the smaller rhomboids 17 



Girth in the middle 92 



Girth at the base 50 



Greatest girth of the axis 26 



Transverse diameter of a rhomboid 5 



Vertical diameter of ditto 3^ 



In relating the history of this plant, it is to be observed, lastly, 

 that some time before the scales began to fall from the axis, a set of 

 young leaves made their appearance on one side of its base. They 

 were invested with a thick, silky, olive- coloured pubescence. They 

 at first took a horizontal direction, but on the removal of the cone 

 their tendency was upwards. 



Encephalartus horridus. — A male plant flowered in 1839 at Kin- 

 mel Park, the seat of Lord Dinorben, who presented the cone to the 

 Linnsean Society. (Proceedings, p. 9 ; Annals of Nat. Hist. S. 1. 

 vol. iii. p. 58.) 



A female bore fruit at Chats worth in 1846, and is now in fruit 

 again. Another female, formerly in the garden of the Horticultural 

 Society at Chiswick and now in Mr. Yates's possession, has twice pro- 

 duced a cone supported by a short peduncle. Among the distinctions, 

 to which allusion has been made already, between the genus Cycas and 

 the other genera of the same Natural "Order, it is remarkable that the 

 female cone of Cycas is sessile, and tfip,t after it has arrived at ma- 

 turity its scales diverge and assume a tendency to a horizontal di- 

 rection, corresponding with that of the leaves ; after which the next 

 set of leaves rises from the centre of the cone. In other Cycadese, 

 the cone, whether male or female, is pedunculated, and the new tuft 

 of leaves appears by the side of the peduncle. 



