396 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Garden Plants— Their Geog^raphy— L'XXXII. 
Coniferales— Continue fl. 
The Cyoadeae are a tribe of tropical and sub-tropical 
trees and shrubs embracing 9 genera and 83 species. 
The older botanists had but very imperfect ideas of 
their affinities. Adanson thought them related to 
Palms. Linnaeus was of the same opinion for some 
time, but finally thought them nearer ferns, probably 
more on account of their young leaflets being rolled 
up like a watch-spring, as young fern fronds are, than 
for microscopical reasons. L. C. Richard was one of 
the first if not the first to erect them into an order 
intermediate, as he thought, between palms and ferns. 
It was not until Brown, in 1825, demonstrated the 
similarity of the flowers of Cycads and conifers that 
true ideas of their affinities began to be formed. Some 
authors (i. e., De Candolle, at one time, and John 
Smith) regarded them as Gymnospermous Monoco- 
tyledones. When germinating several send up a single 
plumule, but the young plants when lifted have the 
seeds still attached, and the whole, radicle, plumule 
and nut, differs scarcely at all from some oaks in the 
same stage, and the cotyledones seem to be impris- 
oned by the integ- 
uments. Cycads 
thus agree with 
conifers in their 
d i c o t y 1 edonous 
seeds, in their sep- 
aration of sexes, 
the circular discs 
of their wood, the 
imperfect forma- 
tion of spiral ves- 
sels and the simple 
veining of their leaflets ; they have also the same re- 
markable naked ovules borne upon the margins or 
planes of metamorphosed leaves assuming an open or 
compact conical form, and terminating the simple cylin- 
drical stems, which as a rule develop their terminal 
buds only, and but rarely lateral ones. In this they 
differ from conifers, many of which nevertheless ad- 
vance primarily by leading buds. 
Cycas in about a score of species are found in the 
tropical and sub-tropical parts of such countries as 
India, the Malayan and Polynesian Islands, Australia, 
Southern China and South Africa, C. Imperialis 
being South African and C. revoluta South Asian. 
The latter is by far the most common Cycad in the 
states, the dry stems being imported from Japan in 
quantities. It is hardy for terms of years north to 
Savannah, Ga., and around the Gulf, but is often in- 
jured or even killed at last by “northers” of severe 
frost. It grows rapidly under natural conditions, and 
with lots of moisture old stems become full of lateral 
buds which often develop leaves as shown in the en- 
graving. Seeds of this species have always been in- 
fertile with me, for I have never had male plants 
flower. Some scientists say “Cycas has no female 
flowers,” but I don’t know about that ; there seem to 
CYCAS REVOLUTA. 
be ovules. C. circinalis is a much finer plant seen only 
in large tropical conservatories in the temperate re- 
gions. I have seen occasional examples apparently 
CYCAS REVOLUTA. 
of this species on the lower slopes of the Nilgiris in 
India, with stems about 15 to 20 feet high and finely 
