600 CONIFERS — CYCADACEiE. 



good, timber in New Zealand. Taxus haccata, the Yew, is a valuable 

 timber tree. It yields resin, and its leaves and seeds are said to be 

 narcotico-aorid. Salishurya has remarkable cuneate leaves, and the 

 fruit of S. adiantifolia, the Ginko, is said to be eatable. Gnetum urens 

 has singular stinging hairs within the episperm or outer integument 

 of the seed. Welwitschia is a remarkable plant from the West Coast 

 of Africa. It is not more than one foot high, and its stem is often 

 four feet in diameter. The only leaves produced are the two coty- 

 ledons, which last during the life of the pl^nt, probably more than 

 100 years, and they increase so as to become six feet iii length and 

 two or three in width. The peduncles are short, and bear terminal 

 catkins with scarlet imbricated bracts, each covering a flower. 

 Dr. W. E. M'Nab considers that in the male flowers of this remark- 

 able plant we have a close approach to the angiosperms, the axis of 

 the flower ending in a mass of tissue, which in the female flower is 

 the terminal ovule ; while in the female flower we have the truly 

 gymnospermous condition, there being no carpels, but a terminal 

 ovule, the modified end of the axis of the flower, with a single ovular 

 integument,— the pollen-grains being applied directly to the naked 

 nucleus. 



Order 184. — Cycadace.s!, the Oycas Family. {Achlamyi. Biclin.) 

 Flowers unisexual. Males collected into cones, the scales bearing on 

 their lower surface 1-celled anthers, which are united often in sets of 

 two, three, or four. Females consisting of naked ovules, placed at 

 the base of flat scales, or beneath peltate ones, or seated on the mar- 

 gins of altered leaves. Seeds hard and nut-like, sometimes with an 

 external spongy coat ; embryos 1 or 2, suspended in a central cavity ; 

 albumen fleshy or mealy ; cotyledons unequal ; radicle superior, hav- 

 ing a long cord-like prolongation, by which the embryo is suspended. 

 — Trees or shrubs, with cylindrical trunks, usually simple, sometimes 

 dichotomous, marked with the soars of the leaves, and in many 

 respects having the aspect of Palms (fig. 519, p. 292). The internal 

 structure is more or less distinctly that of dicotyledons. Pitted tissue 

 and spiral vessels occur. The leaves are pinnate, and their vernation 

 is sometimes circinate, resembling ferns. The seeds of Macrozamia 

 spiralis, called Burrawary, are considered poisonous, causing vomiting 

 and stupor. The Plant is called in Sydney " Native Palm," and the 

 leaves are used on Palm-Sunday. The seeds, when steeped in water 

 for several days, and then roasted, are said to lose their poisonous 

 qualities. The plants of this order are found in the temperate and 

 warm regions of America and Asia, as well as at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. There are 7 genera, according to authors, and 50 species. 

 Examples — Cycas, Zamia, Dion, Encephalartos, Macrozamia, Stan- 

 geria, Bowenia. 



The Oycadaceous family yields much starchy matter, along with 



