420 



BOTANICAL GAZETTE 



[NOVEMBER 



Whether the margin of a leaflet is entire or serrate or spinulose 

 may be trivial in some cases and important in others, even within 

 the range of a single family. Dioon spinulosum was for a long time 

 characterized almost solely by the spinulose leaflets, but the charac- 

 ter is so constant that determinations based only upon this feature 

 are quite safe. On the other hand, the leaflets of the African 

 Stangeria paradoxa may show the entire or the serrate character 

 on the same plant or even on the same leaf. In the Botanical 





Fig. l.—Bowenia speclabilis at Babinda, Australia: about i m. in height 



Garden at Durban, South Africa, Mr. Wylie showed me '< 

 Stangeria paradoxa with leaflets so deeply incised that t 

 might almost be called bipinnate. In Stangeria the character is 



lm 



In some 



cies of Encephalartos the fluctuating variations in the margins 

 eaflets have doubtless led taxonomists into pitfalls. 

 In Bowenia the serrate or entire character of the margin is so 

 stant that it would be worthv of sDecific rank even if it were not 



