ZAMIA (Lat., fir-cone left to decay on the tree, from Gk. 'zeinia, harm, damage). A comprehensive name for plants of the natural order Cycadacex, the species of which are found throughout the tropics. They have a tree-like stem, with a single terminal bud and pinnate leaves. The wood consists of concentric circles, with very loose cellular zones between them. The male and female flowers are on sepa rate plants, in tessellated catkins. the scales of which differ in form in the male and female plants. The central part of the stein contains much starch, especially in old plants, and a kind of sago or arrowroot is made from some of them. The genus Zamia has been divided, the Old World species being mostly embraced in the genera Maerozamia (q.v.) and Encephalartos. the American species still retaining the name Zamia and comprising about thirty species. They are found mainly in Central America, Mexico. West
Indies. and Northern South America. The cen tral part of the stein of the kaffir bread tree (Encephalartos coffer), of South Africa, which is about 6 to 7 feet high, with a scaly stem, is much used as an article of food by the Kaffirs and llottentots, who prepare it by wrapping it in a skin well rubbed with grease. it until it undergoes putrefaction, bruising it with stones, making it into cakes, and baking it in wood-ashes. There are numerous fossil species of Zamia. Closely allied to it is the fossil genus Zamites. The only common species in the United States is Zamia intcyrifolia, the coontie. which abounds in low grounds in southern Florida. It Has short, globular or oblong stems with numer ous leaves spreading from their summits. The stems contain much starch, from which the Florida arrowroot is made.