CYCADACEAE 97 



Plate 14. 



Stangeria* paradoxa Moore 



1. Female plant, with young leaf and female cone. 1/8. From Natal. 



2. Terminal leaflet of adult leaf. 



3. Female cone. Before pollination. Nat. size. 



4. Male cone. Nearly fully developed. 



5. Scale of male cone (a sporophyll), the under side. Nat. size. 



6. Group of ripe pollen bags from sporophyll. 6/1. 



7. Pollen grains. 300/1. 8. Ripe seed. 



9. Ripe seed in longitudinal section, showing the undeveloped embryo. 



Stangeria paradoxa possesses a large, globose or oblong, underground stem, 

 up to 10 inches in diam., mostly divided into 3 or 4 stout branches, which 

 reach with their apex nearly to the surface of the soil (Fig. 63). The plants are 

 evergreen, and the new leaves appear, one only each time or a few in a season, 

 in early summer. Plants of the grassveld have their -foliage destroyed by fire 

 from time to time, hence they often possess only one leaf on each branch. 

 The cones are always single and their peduncle projects only a few inches 

 above the ground. The bases of the petioles and of the peduncle of the cone are 

 densely woolly. The leaves are pinnate like those of Encephalartos, but the 

 venation is different, each leaflet possessing a strong midrib, the veins running 

 from the midrib like the barbs of a feather. The cones of both sexes are 

 smooth on the outer side, the ovules flesh-coloured, not white as in Encephalartos, 

 while the colour of the ripe seeds is the same in both genera. The foliage of 

 the plant is very variable according to the nature of its habitat. In exposed 

 grassy localities of East London and the coastal parts of the Transkei the blade 

 of the leaves is generally not more than 8 — 12 inches long, dull coloured, 

 leathery when fully developed, and the margin of the leaflets entire. This 

 form has been named Stangeria Kalzeri (Regel, Garter*flora xxin (1874), 

 Taf. 798). (See Fig. 63.) In sheltered ravines, however, and among the 

 forest scrub of Natal the plants are more luxuriant, with leaves up to 4 feet in 

 length, the blade being not rarely 2^ feet long ; the texture is soft and the 

 colour bright green, while the margin of the leaflets is deeply serrate. 



The two extremes may easily be taken for two distinct species, but one 

 finds various intermediate forms. It will be consequently preferable to consider 

 them as varieties, viz. Stangeria paradoxa var. Katzeri [St. Kalzeri Regel], 

 Fig. 64, Stangeria paradoxa var. schizodon [St. paradoxa Moore], Plate 14. 



The stem of young plants shows in transverse section a central ring of 

 xylem-bundles with several (5- — 8) spots of meristem scattered in the ground- 

 tissue around it. This meristem does not form strands but merely exists as 

 oblong masses ; hence in successive transverse sections these spots change their 



s Named after Dr Stanger, a Surveyor General of Natal, who died in 1854. 

 M. 13 



