142 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [FEBRUARY 
The foliage display is not surpassed by any cycad. The leaves 
are 2-3 m. in length and may number more than roo in a single 
crown. With so many large leaves in a crown, and, in all proba- 
bility, a new crown nearly every year, the trunk grows rapidly. 
Mr. J. W. Kerr, of Durban, South Africa, showed me an ovulate 
plant raised from a seed planted 30 years before, which had a stem 
reaching 25 cm. above the surface and bearing a fine crown of 
leaves and two large cones. Another plant, also raised from a seed 
Fic. 1.—M. Moorei at Springsure: ovulate plant in foreground has trunk about 
3.5 m. in height. 
planted a few years before the one just mentioned, had a stem 4° 
cm. in height and had borne ovulate cones for several years. This 
shows that the plant grows very rapidly and produces cones at an 
early age. Although it is very probable that small cycads, like 
Zamia, produce cones at a still earlier age, this is the first instance, 
so far as I know, in which the period between the planting of the 
seed and the production of cones is known, even approximately. 
The armor of leaf bases persists even at the base of the stem, 
so that the age of a plant could be estimated quite easily, if it were 
