Casuarina.} OXXV, CASUARINEM (Wright), 815 
Orper CXXV. CASUARINEZ. 
(By C. H. Wrieut.) 
Flowers unisexual, bracteate and 2-bracteolate. Male flower: 
Perianth-segments 1-2, concave or cucullate, circumscissile at the 
base. Stamen 1; filament inflexed in bud; anther rather large, 
cells distinct, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flower: Perianth 
0. Ovary minute, 1-celled ; style with long linear branches 
stigmatose throughout their length; ovules 2, collateral, semi- 
anatropous, micropyle superior. Fruit formed of nutlets arranged 
in ovoid or cylindric strobiles; bracts and bracteoles enlarged, 
united and often woody ; nuts laterally compressed, smooth, winged 
at the apex, dehiscing by 2 valves. Seed solitary by abortion, 
laterally affixed ; testa membranous ; albumen 0; embryo straight, 
cotyledons complanate, radicle short, superior.—Trees or shrubs ; 
branches and branchlets leafless, rigid, erect or pendulous, many 
deciduous, cylindric and verticillate or tetragonal and scattered, 
articulated at the nodes. Scales 4 to many at each node, small, 
appressed, sometimes connate into a short sheath, midribs decurrent 
and forming angles on the stem. Male spikes simple or compound, 
usually terminal on deciduous branches, cylindric or tetragonal ; 
female spikes globose or ovoid, terminal or lateral on persistent 
branches. 
Genus 1; species about 50, chiefly in Australia and New Caledonia, a few in 
the Malay Archipelago, Pacific Isiands and Mascarene Islands. 
1. CASUARINA, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. iii. 402. 
Characters as for the Order. 
1. C. equisetifolia, Linn. Amen. Acad. iv. 143. A tall tree with 
brown smooth much cracked bark. Branches horizontal, drooping 
at their apices; branchlets filiform, resembling a slender Equisetum, 
6-8-ribbed, the ribs of one internode alternate with those of the next, 
ashy-grey ; scales verticillate, 3 lin. long, narrowly lanceolate, brown 
in the upper part. Male spikes numerous, slender, 1-1} in. long ; 
bracteoles oblong, obtuse, scarious, } lin. long. Perianth-segments 
about as long as the bracteoles, concave, obtuse, scarious. Filament 
nearly 1 lin. long; anther-lobes shortly elliptic, pointed at the 
base. Female spikes on short lateral branches, subglobose, about 
6 lin. in diam. in fruit, valves pubescent on the back, strongly ribbed 
tound the edge.—Forst. Char. Gen. 103, fig. 52; Mig. in DC. Prodr. 
Xvi. ii. 338, and Rev. Crit, Casuar, 43, t. 5; Seem. Fl. Vit. 263 ; 
