Oephalotaxus] CXIV. COJSTIFEE-^ 697 



upper portion of the endosperm, cotyledons 2. Species 6, closely allied. Eastern 

 xxSia. 



A. L. narrowed towards the base. 



1. C. Mannii, Hook. f. Khasi, Jaintia and Naga hills 4,500-8,500 ft. A small ti^ee, 

 1. green beneath, 1-lJ in. long, gradually narrowed into a sharp point, midrib promi- 

 nent on the tipper, less so on the underside. Seed IJ in. long, striate. Gamble, Indian 

 Timbers ed. ii. p. 700, gives this from Upper Burma, I have not seen specimens. 

 Taxus haccafa, which is common in the Enby Mines hills, has sometimes been con- 

 fused with this species, from which it may be distinguished by the absence of resm- 

 canals in the leaves. 2. C. Fortimei, Hook, f. China. Pilger, Taxaceee, 103, gives 

 this from the Euby Mines, Upper Burma. I have not seen specimens. A small tree, 

 1. white beneath, 2^-3^ by J-^ in., gradually narrowed into a sharp point. Peduncle 

 of ? fl. surrounded at base by broad and short, higher up by lanceolate bracts ^ in. 

 long, ovules 2 at the base of an ovate scale. 



B. L. with a broad rounded base. 



3. C. Griffitliii, Hook. f. Mishmi hills, Assam. Manipur. Bernardmj^o, Euby 

 Mines district, 5,500-6,500 ft. A middle-sized tree, bark brown, polished. L. falcate, 

 w^iitish beneath, 1^ by ^ in., abruptly narrowed into a point, midnb prominent on 

 the upperside. Pilger, Taxace^, 104, refers 0. Griffithii, Oliver, Ic. Plant, t. 1933 (non 

 Hook, f.) to C. Oliveri, a Chinese species with thick rigid 1 , the midrib not prominent 

 above. 



Oedek CXV. CYCADACEiE, Gen. PI. iii. 443. 



Small trees, trunk cylindric, sometimes branched. A terminal crown of 

 leaves J bands of short coriaceous mostly woolly scales alternating with 

 bands of large pinnate palm-like leaves. Fl. dioecious, at the apex of the 

 trunk among the leaves, the male usually in erect cones, sometimes two 

 together, formed of numerous thickened, flat or variously peltate scales, bear- 

 ing innumerable globose anther-cells on the under-surface. Anther-cells 

 dehiscing by a longitudinal slit, often arranged in stellate groups of 3-5. 

 Pemale : carpellary leaves (carpophylls) in cones or in crowded whorls round 

 the apex of the stem, ovules large, sessile, orthotropous, integument one, near 

 the micropyle free and often prolonged into a beak. Several months elapse 

 between the growth of the pollen-tube and fertilization, which is effected 

 through motile spermatozoids, analogous to Perns and to Oingko among 

 Conifers. Seed large, embryo enclosed in copious endosperm, the radicle 

 attached to a long twisted filiform suspensor. Cotyledons 2. 



In many species (Cycas particularly) the alternate bands formed by the persistent 

 base of scales and leaves can be clearly distinguished on the outside of the trunk, the 

 bands formed by the base of leaf-stalks being more prominent, having the ap|>ear- 

 ance of thick annular cushions. The stem of Cycads is remarkable by the large size 

 of pith and bark, both consisting of parenchymatous cells, usually filied with starch. 

 Mucilage canals, often branched and anastomosing, lined by thin-walled secreting 

 cells, are frequent in the bark, w^hence they extend to the leaves, and they are also 

 found in the pith. Wood, cambium, bast, and medullary rays are arranged as in 

 Conifers *, the wood, apart from the medullary rays, consists entirely of long trache- 

 ides, more or less radially arranged, usually with several parallel lines of bordered 

 pits on the radial face, the pits oblong, not circular as in Conifers. These tracheides 

 in some cases have spirally and scalariform thickened walls, and they might, save 

 that their ends are not perforated, be classed as vessels. The iibro-vascular bundles 

 (leaf-traces), which enter the petiole, run for a considerable distance through the bark 

 before joining the central cylinder ; their course is not straight, they are bent in a 

 remarkable manner, and often anastomose. In Ci/cccs and Encephalartos the action 

 of the cambium ceases, after the first central cylinder (wood and bast) has been 

 formed, and then a fresh more or less concentric cambium layer appears in the bark, 

 which forms a second ring of wood and bast outside the first, and this process is 

 repeated several times, the result being on a transverse section a number of more or 

 less concentric masses of wood, which sometimes anastomose, separated by softer layers 

 of bast and parenchymatous tissue. 



