. Oycads. 249 



length of time which has since elapsed, the cycads have been 

 driven southward, until not a single species is now found in 

 Europe. They are not alone in this respect, for palms and 

 gigantic tree ferns nourished here too. Only one or two 

 species of palm now exist north of the Mediterranean, and 

 no example of a tree fern. The genus Banksia, which we now 

 look upon as being more characteristic than perhaps any other 

 of the Australian flora, was, there is reason to think, at one 

 time, a native of this country. We cannot be surprised there- 

 fore to find that the cycads have all emigrated : let us see 

 where we find their descendants settled in our own day. 



The geographical distribution of this family is not confined 

 within such narrow bounds as was supposed a few years ago, 

 many new species, and new localities for old ones, have been 

 recently discovered. They are perhaps more plentiful in South 

 Africa than in any other part of the world. Mr. Bunbury, 

 writing in the London Journal of Botany, says that Zamias are 

 among the forms of vegetation that characterize the eastern 

 parts of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, especially the 

 great tract of thicket extending along the Caffir frontier. It 

 was formerly supposed that they were not to be found in the 

 regions of tropical Africa, but the researches of Barter upon 

 the Niger, and Gustav Mann upon the west coast, prove this 

 to have been a fallacy ; some fine cones collected by these 

 two botanists now enrich our national collection at Kew, as well 

 as some specimens sent by Dr. Kirk of the Livingstone 

 Expedition. Among the species most plentiful in South 

 Africa are Encephalartos Gaffer, E. horridus, and E. pungens. 

 Cycads are also found in Mexico, the East and West 

 Indies, in Madagascar, the warmer parts of Asia, and 

 some of the South Sea Islands. The recent researches of Dr. 

 F. Mueller of Melbourne, and Mr. W. Hill of Brisbane, have 

 added much to our knowledge of the Australian forms of this 

 family. One most interesting species, for the knowledge of 

 which we are indebted to the latter botanist, we must mention. 

 It is Bowenia spectabilis (Fig. 4), of which an admirable figure 

 by Mr. W. Fitch was published in the Botamcal Magazine 

 (T. 5398). We borrow the following remarks from Sir William 

 J. Hooker's description of the plant, published in that valuable 

 work : — " The discoverer of this singular plant was the late 

 Allan Cunningham, from whom wo received, upwards of forty 

 years ago, a portion of a frond, collected at the Endeavour River 

 (lat. 15 deg. S.) in 1819, and referred by him provisionally to 

 Aroideo3 {Dracontium jpolyphyllnm M.S.) Nothing, however, 

 was known further of it till Mr. Walter Hill, the zealous and 

 able head of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, re-discovered it in 

 Rockingham Bay, and sent a young living plant, with full- 



