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37. CYCADACEAE
1. Cycas circinalis Linn. Sp. PI. 118. 17S3. (Fig. 180).
Sinh, Madu.
A palm-like tree with a cylindric trunk about 5 m tall, simple or forked, clothed with the
compacted woody bases of petioles; leaves in a terminal crown of two kinds, simple short
sessile, subulate, woolly prophylla 5—7.5 cm long and long—petioled pinnate leaves 1.5—2.7 m
long; petioles 45—60 cm long with short deflexed spines near the base; leaflets 25—30 cm
long, 1.2 cm wide, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, subfatcate, bright green, glabrous and shining,
midrib prominent beneath; inflorescence dioecious, male cone 30—60 cm long, shortly
peduncled, erect, woolly, cylindric-ovoid consisting of a short axis, clothed with closely imbricate
cuneiform scales; scales 4—5 cm long, del to idly obovate, tip contracted into an upcurved spine
about 2.5 cm long, reddish brown, each scale bearing on its under surface groups of 3—5 globose
anthers; female inflorescence consists of a whorl of long, spreading, woolly carpophylls each
about 30 cm long, 2.5—3.7 cm wide, narrowed into a long stalk, clothed with buff tomentum.
crenate or spinous-serrate, bearing 3—5 pairs of naked orthotropous ovules above the middle;
fruits orange-red, each containing a large seed with copious endosperm.
Illustrations. ' Rheede, Hort. Mai. 3: pis. 13—21; Curtis, Bot. Mag. pis. 2826 and 2827.
Distribution. Grows in S. India, Ceylon, Java,.Sumatra, Madagascar and East Tropical
Africa. In Ceylon, it is found in the moist regions upto 1500 feet altitude. Hanguranketa,
Peradeniya, Teldeniya, Galle, Matara, Ratnapura, etc.
Ceylon. Without locality, Thwaites CP. 3689.
Uses. The young leaves are cooked and eaten for piles and haemorrhoids. The leaves
and seeds are useful for chronic constipation. The seeds yield a flour which is edible.
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