FERN PALMS 499 
use for table decoration. They should be potted in a compost of fibrous 
loam, leaf-mould, and sand. Propagation is effected by cuttings and 
seeds. Seeds should be sown in sandy soil and subjected to slight heat. 
Patience is required for this method of propagation, as the seeds may be 
very tardy in germinating. Cuttings are made from lateral shoots, the 
produetion of which is induced by stopping the main shoot. These are 
inserted firmly in pots of sandy soil, and placed in a close frame kept at 
a temperature of about 60°. Cuttings made from the horizontal branches 
never make symmetrical plants. They must be watered with care, and 
the pots must be efficiently drained. Seeds of A. excelsa are now often 
imported in large quantities, so that cuttings are rarely resorted to. 
This species is grown by tens of thousands by the Ghent nurserymen, 
who supply nearly the whole of Europe with healthy young plants at a 
cheap rate. A. imbricata is also raised from seeds. The others are not 
much grown in this country. When grown in rooms the plants are apt to 
get covered with dust ; this can be removed by syringing them vigorously 
with soapy water. Care must be taken not to bruise any of the shoots, 
more especially the leader, as parts so affected rapidly perish. 
Description of Araucaria excelsa, the Norfolk Island Pine, greatly 
Plate 235. reduced. 
FERN PALMS 
Natural Order CycaADAcE&. Genus Cycas 
Cycas (the classical Greek name for some species of Palm). A genus of 
about fifteen species of stove herbaceous perennials, which agree with 
Conifers in possessing no ovary, the ovules being naked and receiving 
the pollen directly without the pollen-tube having to penetrate stigma 
and style. Cycads differ from Conifers chiefly in the fact that 
branching of the stem is a very rare occurrence with them, and in having 
large frond-like leaves. The stem is thick and succulent, except in very 
old plants. The leaves of Cycas are of two kinds: small, dry, brown, 
hairy, leathery, stalkless scales, and large, stalked, pinnate foliage-leaves. 
The two kinds alternate periodically. An individual produces at its 
summit either male or female flowers; not both. The female flower is _ 
a rosette of foliage-leaves which have undergone slight modification in 
development, the lower leaflets (pinne) being replaced by ovules as large 
as a moderate-sized plum, coloured orange-red when mature. These grow 
to full size whether fertilised or not. In the male the sumeaigaieasi = is 
