Cycads. 247 



well marked are the characters "by which they are known, that 

 having once become acquainted with them, the family likeness 

 is at once recognized. 



It is very strange that so remarkable a family, and one 

 whose history is fraught with so much of interest, we might 

 almost say of romance, has never yet found a biographer; no 

 one has taken the subject in hand, and any one wishing for 

 information concerning the cycads must seek for it in brief 

 notes and passing allusions in a hundred different works. No 

 man has undertaken the duty of introducing this family to the 

 British public. That pleasant task has fallen into our hands, 

 and we believe that the readers of the Intellectual Obseever 

 will find something to interest them in the subject of our paper, 

 if not in the manner in which it is treated. 



In their cylindrical, undivided stems, surmounted by a 

 crown of foliage, the cycads resemble palms. A good idea of 

 the general habit of the family is shown in Fig. 1, which is a 

 sketch of Encejphalartos Gaffer, Lehm., from a fine specimen 

 growing in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. It will be seen 

 that the stem is undivided, growing only at the apex, and that 

 the lower parts are marked with the scars of the old leaves. 

 In exceptional cases the stems are divided dichotomously. In 

 this again cycads resemble palms, for there are one or two 

 examples of forking stems even among the palms, as Hyphcene 

 for example. In the germination of their seeds, too, there is a 

 similarity between them; but then, again, if we look at the 

 venation of the leaflets of their pinnate fronds we should be 

 inclined to think there must be some relationship with ferns. 

 The arrangement of the veins is precisely that found in the 

 free-veined ferns, as shown in Fig. 2 ; indeed, when the fronds 

 of this plant were first sent to this country, without either 

 stem or fruit, they were believed to belong to that family, and 

 the plant was, by Kunze, a first-rato authority upon ferns, pub- 

 lished as a species of Lomaria. 



The most characteristic feature of the ferns, and one which 

 most persons would look upon as being a distinctive mark of 

 the family, is the gyrate vernation of their fronds; that is, 

 their being coiled up, like the head of a crozier, in their young 

 state. But this we find is also a character observed in tho 

 majority of cycads. While their habit of growth resembles the 

 palm, their venation and vernation is, to all appearance, fern- 

 like ; but their floral organs and their fruits, which are, of 

 course, tho most important parts, give us the resemblance of a 

 third great natural order — Coniferce, tho fir-tree tribe. The 

 flowers are unisexual and without floral envelopes {aclilamydeous) . 

 In the male cones the one-celled anthers are scattered in sessile 

 clusters over the lower surface of the scales. The anthers split 



