2060 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



branches are downy. Leaves alternate, oblong, 

 linear ; cut on each side into rounded and numerous 

 lobes, like those of the ceterach ; and sprinkled with 

 shining dots, like those of the gales. The male cat- 

 kins are oblong and sessile ; female catkins sessile, 

 solitary, lateral, and bristly, with numerous filaments. 

 According to Pursh, the whole plant, when rubbed, 

 has a resinous scent. A native of North America, 

 from New England to Virginia, in sandy, stony, or 

 slaty woods. It was introduced in 1714, by the 

 Duchess of Beaufort. The shrub is very hardy, but 

 it requires peat earth and a shady situation. It may 

 be propagated by layers, suckers, or seeds. The first 

 and second methods are the most common, as good 

 seeds can rarely be procured. Plants, in the Lon- 

 don nurseries, are from Is. to Is. 6d. each; at BoU- 

 wyller, 3 francs; and at New York, 37^ cents. 



CHAP. ex. 



of the half-hardy ligneous plants of the order 

 casuara'ce^. 



This remarkable family consists of branchy trees, the branches of which 

 are in all cases, when fully grown, " long, drooping, green, and wiry, with 

 very small scale-like sheaths, in the room of leaves. The flowers are unisexual, 

 and disposed in verticillate spikes ; they have neither calyx nor corolla, are 

 monandrous, and their ovaries are lenticular, with a solitary erect ovule. The 

 fruit consists of hardened bracts, enclosing the small caryopses, or nut-like 

 seeds, which are winged." {Lindl. in Penny Cyc.) Natives of Asia, Australia, 

 and Polynesia. This order was formerly considered to belong to Coniferae ; 

 but is now placed by botanists next to il/yricaceae. The timber of some of 

 the species forms the beef-wood of the New South Wales colonists, and is 

 of excellent quality. In British gardens, the plants are more hardy than most 

 of the Australian trees ; and, in warm situations in Devonshire, or sheltered 

 by evergreens in other parts of the south of England, would probably attain 

 a timber-like size without any care or trouble whatever. 



Casuarina ecjidsetifdlia Ait. Hort. Kew., iii. p. 320., Willd. Sp. PI., iv. p. 190., 

 Bot. Cab.,t. G07.,and our^^. 1972.; C Vittorca l{itm2)h. A)nb.,n\. t. 57.; Swamp 

 Oak, Austral.; Filao a Feuilles de Prele, Fr. Monoecious. Branchlets weak, 

 round. Scales of the strobiles unarmed, villous; sheaths of the n)ale 7-parted, 

 ciliated. A lofty tree, with a large trunk, and numerous branches. These 

 branches are long, slender, wand-like, cylindrical, weak, and drooping, bearing 

 a great resemblance to those of the common horsetail. Six or seven scales, 

 or teeth, on each branch, serve instead of leaves. The catkins are upright 

 and terminal ; the scales of the cones are downy ; and those of the male cat- 

 kins are ciliated. In Australia, it flowers in October and November. It is a 

 native of the East Indies, New Holland, and the South Sea Islands ; from 

 which last country it was introduced in 1766, by Admiral Byron. From 

 the cone-like shape of its fruit, it was at first supposed to belong to tiie Co- 

 nfferae, and was called the Tinian pine. It stands out in the climate of 

 London ; and there is a tree in the garden of Wm. Bromley, Esq., 1 1 ft. high, 

 of which our Jtf^. 1972. is a portrait, taken in 1834. In the Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Socivlij for IBIS is an account, accompanied by a figure of the 

 entire tree, of a species of Casuarina then growing in the gardens of Bel- 

 vedere, near Weimar, communicated by His Royal Ilighness Charles Angus- 



