246 CycacCs. 



of the great wind storm which swept over the country not long 

 since, the only mishap being a flight of the top shutter which 

 was left unfastened. 



The comfort and convenience of the building has been found 

 very great, and the performance of the specula immeasurably 

 superior to what it ever was when they were used in the open 

 air. They are left permanently in the tube shut up with tin 

 covers, fitting closely to the cells in which they are mounted, 

 and further protected from damp by a bag of sawdust which 

 has been steeped in a saturated solution of the chloride of cal- 

 cium and afterwards baked thoroughly dry. Thus protected 

 their surfaces retain all their original splendour, and are 

 reflective in the highest possible degree. On reckoning up the 

 entire cost of materials and workmanship, it was found not to 

 exceed the very moderate sum of £14. 



Should any observer of the heavens, reading this account of 

 a cheap observatory, be resolved to get under the shelter of a 

 revolving roof, it would afford the writer pleasure to aid him 

 by any explanations and suggestions not already mentioned in 

 the foregoing article. 



Q-EXEEAL CEMETEET, BlEMINGHAM. 



CYCADS. 



BY JOHN R. JACKSON, 



Curator of the Kew Museum. 



{With a Tinted Plate.) 



There is something strange and peculiar about the cycads — 

 something wierd and pre-Adamitish about their very appearance 

 — which fixes our attontion, even at the first glance, and the more 

 closely we examine into the history of these plants the more 

 interesting does it become. In the whole range of the vege- 

 table, productions of onr globe ii would be difficult to select a 

 group of plants to which more of interest is attached. There 

 are not very many of them, perhaps not more than 70 or 80 

 species, at present existing. Their geographical range is some- 

 what extended, for we find them in Africa, in America, the 

 West Indian [slands, and in Australia; they are the scattered 

 remnants, the living representatives of a bygone Eora. They 

 form a little family circle, completely isolated from the remainder 

 of the vegetable world. Tiny have no close ties of relationship 

 connecting them with any other group of plants, although pos- 

 sessing external resemblances to several. So peculiar and 



