14 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
The tall stemmed, much branched Cycas circinalis of the 
evergreen forests of the Western Ghats and Ceylon and the 
branclied or simple-stemmed Cycas Rumphii of the low- 
lying forests of the Malabar Coast, Tenasserim, the Mergui 
Archipelago and the Andaman Islands, together with the 
simple-stemmed Cycas pectinata, contain in the inner medul- 
la of their trunks an abundance of edible and nutritive 
starch. The ovoid fruits of the species, too, that are borne 
in alternate rows or series upon the edges of the fleshy 
pedunculate bracts are turgescent with quantities of a mealy 
starch which is eagerly sought after and consumed by the 
hill tribes. The excessive periodic demands which fruit- 
bearing makes on the reserves of starch stored up in the 
stem result in the latter being left, after fruiting, in a con- 
dition of almost complete denudation of that substance. 
For purposes of exploitation of the cycads for sago they 
have, therefore to be handled before fruitescence. More- 
over, the activity of the species is intermittent; it has a dis- 
tinct period of growth followed by as distinct a period of 
recuperative rest. After the first showers of rain of the 
South-west monsoon, it enters upon its greatest vegetative 
activity. The sap then ascends rapidly up the stem and a 
cone of more or less circinate leaf-buds is given out at the 
top above the circle of insertion of the previous year's 
fronds; these elongate together and with the older fronds, 
form the foliage of the plant for the remaining months of 
the year. When the fronds are young, they assimilate 
vigorously and soon help to restore to the recesses of the 
plant the reserve material which had been previously re- 
quisitioned. As they grow older, their activity diminishes, 
until in the cold weather it altogether ceases.. In the hot 
weather supervening, the fronds turn yelow and, at its close 
they droop and wither. 
The method of extraction of cycad sago may be briefly 
