59 
original S. Martiana the sepals are straw-coloured, and much 
more dotted with purple. Messrs. Rollisson have lately 
flowered it, and believe they obtained it from Mexico. It is 
as fine a thing as S. tigrina would be if its flowers were white, 
and is very sweet-scented. 
82. DION edule. 
The addition of a new genus to the Cycadaceous order is 
indeed a fine thing ; and that which is now about to be de- 
scribed is quite as different from the others of the order as 
Cycas is from Zamia. For our knowledge of it we are in- 
debted to Mrs. Lavater, a lady long resident in Mexico, who 
brought home a cone and a live plant, both of which she pre- 
sented to the Horticultural Society. The cone was filled with 
seeds, about the size of a Spanish chesnut, but after some 
time fell to pieces, the seeds proving to he all destitute of 
embryo. The plant, which is growing, has a simple stem, 
like that of a Zamia, but buried in wool. The leaves are 
deep and light green, about two feet long, pinnated, with 
about sixty pairs of leaflets, which are shaped like the blade 
of a straight sword, very sharp pointed, attached to the pe- 
tiole by their whole base, with parallel simple veins, which 
pass distinctly into the petiole ; they are about two inches 
and a half long. 
Although the male and female flowers of this plant are 
unknown, the fruit affords abundant marks of distinction. 
It consists of woolly rigid scales, tapering to the point, and 
collected into a cone the size of a child’s head, which scales 
are heart-shaped at the base, and bear on each lobe a single nut, 
about as large as a Chesnut. So that we have in this plant the 
cones and geminate seeds of Zamia and Eucephalartos, with 
the flat woolly scales of a Cycas ; but without the marginal 
seeds and lax inflorescence of that genus. We propose to 
characterize the genus thus : — 
Dion (&v et wov). Flores masculi et fceminei ignoti. Stro- 
bilus ovatus, dense lanatus, (capitis infantis magnitudine) ; 
e squamis constans imbricatis, densissime lanatis, petio- 
latis, alte cordatis, acuminatis, intus lsevibus, basi utrin- 
que semen solitarium (Castaneae magnitudine) gerentibus. 
Arbuscula humilis Mexicans foliis pinnatis ; foliolis 
basi lata petiolo adnatis. 
