264 Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
cones, and indeed during these years I have only found an odd cone. In 
cultivation both male and female specimens produce cones almost every 
year. The cones emerge about the same time as those of E. Altensteinii, 
namely, the end of December, but the male cones appear to take a little 
longer to mature, the average date being about the first v^eek of May. 
The ripe male cone reaches a height of about 24-30 inches, and is of a 
conspicuous yellow colour. The sporophylls which in the immature cone 
imbricate descendingly separate widely. It is remarkable that in E. 
villosus the microsporophyll has become more highly differentiated than 
in any other Encephelartos with which I am acquainted, and the number 
of sporangia is considerably below the average of the genus. Chamberlain, 
quoting Miss F. G. Smith, gives the number as 500, but I have never 
found as many as 300, and would put the average down at about 275. 
Pollen is, however, produced in abundance. The upper surface of 
each sporophyll is slightly concave and serves to collect the pollen from 
the sporophylls immediately above it. 
It is suggestive of the inefficiency of the wind to disseminate the 
pollen of this species, and that one may visit a male cone day after day 
during the time the sporangia are dehiscing and find it laden with pollen, 
whereas in a wind-swept cone, such as even that of Stangeria, it is only 
after a period of great calmness that one sees an appreciable quantity of 
pollen on the cone. 
As Professor Pearson pointed out some years ago, the mature male cone 
of E. villosus emits a most powerful and penetrating odour, which has 
been said to suggest a badly kept stable. It is no exaggeration to say 
that by an insect with no keener olfactory sense than our own the quarry 
may be scented from afar, nor is it an uncommon thing for the amateur 
gardener to bury with indecent haste what was an object of admiration 
a few weeks earlier. The first male cone I carefully observed grew in the 
garden of a friend. We watched and recorded its progress from week to 
week, but there came a day when I received a polite but firm request " to 
remove the disgusting thing if you have any further interest in it, as not 
only my family but my neighbours are beginning to complain." The 
odour is much stronger about sunset and in dull, cloudy weather than in 
sunlight. 
Miss Pegler first noted that this odour sewed to attract a species of 
curculionid beetle of the genus Phlseophagus. Her observations were 
recorded by Pearson {loc. cit.), and form the most important link in regard 
to the evidence for the pollination of this species. I found the same 
beetle in vast numbers on two male cones of E. villosus in 1907, and in 
one of them which I brought home and kept under close observation I 
noted that two days later the weevils were pairing. As the life-history of 
these insects seems so interwoven with that of Encephalartos it may be 
