300 Mr Seward, Notes on Cycads , 



Notes on Cycads : with exhibition of a rare species (Cycas 

 Micholitzii) acquired by the Botanic Garden. By A. C. Seward, 

 M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Emmanuel College. 



[Read 12 February 1906.] 



The Author exhibited a plant of Cycas Micholitzii recently 

 obtained by the Curator of the University Botanic Garden from 

 Messrs, Sander and Sons. This species was discovered by Mr W. 

 Micholitz, one of Messrs Sander and Sons' collectors, in Annam, 

 and described last year by Sir William Thiselton-Dyer in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle*. The illustrations accompanying the de- 

 scription were drawn by an artist on the staff of Mr Ridley, the 

 Director of the Botanic Garden, Singapore, who sent specimens 

 of the plant to the former Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 

 The following is the diagnosis of the new species : — " Cycas 

 Micholitzii, sp. n. Caudex subterraneus, 1|- ped. longus 1^ poll, 

 crassus. Folia pauca, ad 10 ped. longa, basi ad 4 ped. aculeis 

 armata, pinnulis 8 poll, longis, fere 2-dichotomis, segmentis f poll, 

 latis. Strobilus mas (juvenilis) ad 6 poll, longus, squamis an- 

 theriferis brevissime acuminatis. Carpophylli lamina terminalis 

 obovato-rhombea superne profunde pectinato-lacera. Annam. 

 Legit cl. Micholitz. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer." 



The most striking character of this species is the repeated 

 dichotomy of most of the pinnae. The two lowest pinnae on 

 one of the fronds represented by the Singapore artist are divided 

 into six and seven linear ultimate segments respectively : the 

 branching appears to be dichotomous ; the lobed pinnae are divided 

 by a median sinus, which reaches almost or quite to the rachis. 

 into two equal branches, and these are again subdivided. The 

 terminal pinnae are simple and similar to those of Cycas revoluta 

 and other species of the genus : these are succeeded by pinnae 

 with two equal segments, and in the lower pinnae the ultimate 

 segments exhibit further dichotomy. The Cambridge plant is 

 clearly a young specimen and differs from that figured by the 

 author of the species in the simple character of most of the 

 pinnae, while others are divided almost to the base into two linear 

 segments. None of the pinnae are subdivided into more than two 

 lobes. The appearance of the slender stem of the young Cambridge 



* Gardeners' Chronicle, August 19, 1905, p. 142. 



