348 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Coniferce. 
respects with Evogens; but are distinguished by their ovules being exposed naked to . 
the fertilising influence of the pollen, instead of being enclosed in a pericarp, and by 
the vessels of their wood having large apparent perforations or disks (Lindley.) Gnetum 
is found in the tropical parts of the Old and New World, occurring in the latter in 
Guiana, whence it was first described by Aublet under the name Zhoa: in the former 
the genus is found from the islands of the Indian Archipelago along the Malayan 
Peninsula up to Chittagong and the Silhet district, where is found Gnetum scandens ; 
as well as on the Malabar coast and the Dindygul mountains. ; 
_— Ephedra affects drier and more temperate, though still warm climates, as the South 
of Europe and the North of Africa, Siberia, and the mountains of Chili. In the 
Himalayas the only species, E. Gerardiana, which approaches E. distachya in character, 
is found, as far as I know, only in the Tatarian climate of Kunawur. 
164. CONIFERZ. 
No plants are, perhaps, more extensively known than the Conifere; the pines, firs, and 
larches, forming a great portion of the forests, and much of the ornament of the pleasure- 
grounds of European countries. In the southern hemisphere they occur in the forms 
of Araucaria, Dammara,’ Dacrydium, Podocarpus, and Callitris. Even in hot coun- 
tries, some are as familiarly known as pines are in the north, and Oriental poets 
compare even the grace and elegancies of the female form with the tall and slender 
cypress ; while the mountains, such as Hindookoosh and the Himalayas, nourish, 
even to the extreme limits of forest, stupendous pines, called by Col. Hodgson 
“* gigantic sons of the snow;” while the juniper, as in northern climes, reaches almost 
the line of perpetual congelation. 
The Conifere, like the Amentaceé, have been divided into a number of distinct 
families, but it is preferable for general purposes to treat together of the Abietinee, 
Cupressine@, and Tavinee. Of these, we find in the southern hemisphere, Araucaria 
in Norfolk Island, New Holland, New Caledonia, also in Chili and Brazil; Dammara 
in New Zealand and Amboyna; Dacrydium in New Zealand, Van Diemen’s Land, 
and Pulo Penang; and Phyllocladus in New Zealand and Van Diemen’s Land. Podo- 
carpus, with species at the Cape, in New Holland, New Zealand, Peru, Chili, and the 
West-Indies, exists also in China, Japan, and Nepal: so Schubertia (Tavodium, 
Rich.), with one species at the Cape, and another in Japan, has two in North 
America.* As these genera of southern distribution send their representatives into the 
northern 
—— 
spherica, haye been introduced into, and grow well in the southern provinces of, India, Dr. Roxburgh 
states, from the two first there is discharged a clear insipid mucilage, which soon hardens into firm trans- 
parent gum, like tragacanth, but clearer. Dr. Roxburgh had not been able to ascertain that any of the species 
yielded sago, or a substitute for it. (FI. Ind. iii. p. 744) aS 
* The Cape and Japanese species here alluded to, are Tazus nucifera of Kempfer, and Cupressus 
Juniperoides of Linneus, which have been lately referred to Taxodium, by Adolphe Brongniart, but Professor 
Don does not regard them as belonging to that genus. 
