ON THE HUON PINE, &c. 153 
in the notch; the outer coat was probably fleshy, but now 
shrivelled, and contains a loose hard nut, attached at its 
base and apex to the outer withered coat, and containing an 
erect seed of the same shape as the seed, fixed by the base, 
and with a black apex; the testa is very thin and delicate, 
the albumen fleshy and apparently copious, with a central 
hollow for the embryo, which was not seen in those very un- 
favourable specimens, but is probably very small; the whole - 
length of the seed is under half a line; most of them appear 
abortive, and many contain the larva of a small coleopterous 
insect, which is probably deposited before the closing of the 
foramen, and which feeds on the albumen, perhaps the em- 
bryo also, which was never found.* 
Mr. Cunningham remarks of it, that it forms a tree of 
irregular growth at McQuarrie Harbour, from 60-70 feet | 
high, and 6-24 in circumference. PET 
Mr. Backhouse, in his valuable ms. notes, in our possession, 
(and he is one of the few scientific persons who have seen 
this plant) says of it, that “it forms a noble tree, growing in 
Swampy places, of a widely pyramidal form; the branches 
rather droop, and the ultimate ones are pendent, like those 
* In one respect, namely, the maturation of many seeds at the apex of 
each fruit-bearing branch, this species differs remarkably from any of its — 
congeners, and from Podocarpus. The plurality of the ovuliferous scales, 
and their arrangement on an axis, in all respects analogous to that of the — 
ordinary strobilus, and particularly similar to that of Microcachrys, is a 
further confirmation of the view Messrs. Brown and Bennett have 
of the place of the Podocarpi and Dacrydia in the Nat. Order Conifere. 
They remove them from the Taxinee, and associate them with the True — 
Pines (vid. Brown and Bennett in Plant. rar. Jav. p. 37). The arrange- 
ment of the female inflorescence in the form of a strobilus being the 
ordinary one amongst Conifere, the Huon Pine may in this particular be i 
regarded as the most fully developed of the little group, including PAyllo- 
Cladus, Podocarpus, and Dacrydium, to which it belongs. D. Colensoi, 
_ Which the present bears a considerable resemblance, produces also 
terminal female flowers, but one only ever arrives at maturity. 
Cladus bas often several mature seeds ; but the foliaceous 
Parts very much marks the resemblance of its infloresc 
dinary strobilus, which is sufficiently evident in Da 
