Caff re-head is made from the starch of a 

 Cape species of Encephalartos, many spe- 

 cies of which genus exist in Australia. In 

 the West Indies some species of Zamia 

 yield a kind of arrowroot. Cycads occur 

 in a fossil state after the coal epoch. 

 There are seven known genera, and about 

 fifty species. Examples: Cycas, Dion, Ence- 

 phalartos, and Zamia. [J. H. B.] 



CYCAS. A remarkable genus giving its 

 name to the order Cycadeacece. It consists 

 of trees of no great height, with cylindrical 

 usually unb ranched stems, terminated at 

 the top by a crown of handsome deeply-cut 

 pinnate leaves of thick texture. The male 

 flowers grow in cones, consisting of scales 

 bearing anthers on their under surface. 

 The female plants bear in the centre 

 of the crown of leaves surmounting the 

 stem, a tuft of woolly pinnarely-cleft 

 leaves, in the notches of whose margins 

 the naked or uncovered ovules are placed. 

 The species are natives of the tropical 

 regions of Australia, Polynesia, and Asia. 



C. circinalis furnishes in Malator a sort 

 of sago, which is prepared from the seeds, 

 j which are dried and powdered ; medicinal 

 j properties are attributed to the seeds, but 

 these are of little importance. The plant 

 is said to be singularly tenacious of life. 

 The pith in the interior of the stem of C. 

 revoUita abounds in starch, which is highly 

 esteemed in Japan. A clear gum exudes 

 from the trunks of these trees, which is said 

 to be employed by the natives of India in 

 promoting speedy suppuration. These ele- 

 gant species are great ornaments in our 

 plant-houses. A fine group of them and 

 of the allied genera may be seen at 

 one end of the large palm-house at Kew. 

 They are popularly but erroneously called 

 Sago-palms, as they furnish none of the 

 sago of commerce. See Plate 6, figs, b 

 and d, the latter showing an old branched 

 stem. [M. T. M.j 



CYCLADENTA. A genus of apocynace- 

 ous plants, natives of California, and allied 

 to the genus Vinca, but abundantly distin- 

 guished from it, says Mr. Bentham, by the 

 cymose inflorescence, the funnel or bell- 

 shaped corolla, and the ring-like disc at the 

 base of the stamens, from which latter the 

 genus derives its name. C. humilis is de- 

 scribed as being a most beautiful plant, 

 resembling Villarsia pumila. [M. T. II.] 



CYCLAMEN. A strongly marked genus 

 of plants belonging to the order Primu- 

 lacece. In all the species the leaves and 

 flowers spring direct from a solid tuberous 

 rootstock, which is shaped like an orange ; 

 the leaves are deeply heart-shaped at the 

 base, toothed or crenate at the edge, and 

 in outline more or less orbicular. The 

 flowers are of one petal, deeply divided 

 into five oblong segments, which being 

 erect while the mouth of the tube is 

 turned downwards, present something of 

 the appearance of a turban. After flower- 

 ing, the flower-stalk (scape) coils itself up 

 into a spiral form, having the seed-vessel 

 in the centre, and bends itself towards the 



ground, in which position the seeds are 

 ripened. The fleshy rootstocks, tinmen of a 

 highly acrid nature, are in Italy and'Sicily 

 greedily sought after by swine ; hence the 

 name Pane porcino, from which the English 

 name Sowbread is adopted, the plants not 

 being found in Great Britain in any situa- 

 tion to which swine have access. One spe- 

 cies is, indeed, sometimes included in the 

 British Flora, but is in all probability an 

 outcast from a garden. Most of the spe- 

 cies are hardy, and as they flower early are 

 much prized as border flowers or for pot 

 cultivation. C. persicum, the handsomest 

 of all, requires artificial heat during the 

 winter, but with care may be made to 

 flower freely in the window garden. 

 French, Pain de Porceau: German Erd- 

 scheibe. . [C. A. J.] 



CYCLANTHACE.E. A name sometimes 

 given to the family of Pandanacece, of 

 which the Cyclanthem are a tribe. 



CYCLANTHERA. A Mexican climbing 

 herb, belonging to the Cucurbitacece." It 

 has bifid tendrils, and small green flowers. 

 The female flowers are sessile, arising from 

 the same point as the males. The latter are 

 stalked, and their peculiarities have given 

 rise to the name of the genus, and to the 

 means of distinguishing it from its allies : 

 the stamens, that is to say, are combined 

 below into a short column which expands 

 above into a round disc, bearing the an- 

 thers at its circumference. [M. T. M.j 



CYCLANTHUS. A remarkable genus of 

 Tropical American plants, referred to Pan- 

 danacece. From a contracted stem they 

 throw up leaves, which are fan-shaped and 

 cleft into two divisions. The flowers are 

 unisexual, and arranged in spiral bands 

 around the spadix, the bands consisting 

 alternately of male and female flowers. 

 The former have many stamens with four- 

 celled anthers ; the latter several ovaries, 

 which become blended into a fleshy many- 

 seeded fruit. The spadix is protected by a 

 spathe which consists of four overlapping 

 bracts. [M. T. MJ 



CYCLE. A term employed in the theory 

 of spiral leaf-arrangement to express a 

 complete turn of the spire which is as- 

 sumed to exist. 



CYCLICAL. Rolled up circularly, as 

 many embryos. 



CYCLOBOTHRA. A genus of Liliaceous 

 plants,allied to C'alochortus, from which they 

 are distinguished by having all the divi- 

 sions of the perianth bearded within, and 

 furnished with a honey-pit in the centre, 

 forming a hump or gibbosity on the out- 

 side. The species are found in Mexico and 

 California, and are very singular and hand- 

 some objects. They have tunicated bulbs, 

 and erect leafy stems, the leaves linear and 

 acuminated, and the stems bearing at the 

 top the nodding flowers, which are some- 

 times arranged in the form of an umbel, 

 and have considerable general resemblance 

 to those of certain species of Fritillaria. 



